The End of the Circus: The Omake Files
by Pyeknu
Summary: Collection of omake episodes for The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei. Mostly written by Regina Magia, but I've got a couple in there as well. As the Second Metahuman Revolution is launched on Earth by Tariko Katabarbe and her fellow Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei, people from across the world benefit from the chance to gain Gifts from the Great Crystal of Power.
1. Seeker

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** ** _Copyright Act_** **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** ** _Seeker  
_** by Regina Magia

* * *

 _ **East Jerusalem, the day after the attempted marriage between Tariko Katabarbe and Redet Lum on planet Uru (174 days after the end of the Tag Race), mid-morning...**_

"Tariko's alright...! Thank goodness!"

The dusky-skinned Israeli with the dirty blonde hair done in a low ponytail to mid-back and the dark hazel eyes, looking to be in her late teens, could only smile in relief. Currently, she was standing in a quiet wood in the eastern Jerusalem neighbourhood of at-Tur, located on the famous Mount of Olives where the Christian Saviour was said to have finally ascended to Heaven. Currently, Naomi bat-Lian was clad in a gold jumpsuit of the halter top pattern preferred by the current Terran-born generation of Yizibajohei, complete with brownish-orange belt and boots and emblazoned with a dark gold sun with a stylized eye insignia in white on her chest above her cleavage. This marked her as the Far-searching Maiden of Light to those who were quick to recognize uniform patterns on the World of the Forge. In Yizibajohei, she would be called _**Lemdo**_ (" _ **Seeker**_ "); Naomi used the Hebrew translation, _**Mekhapés**_ , whenever she had to introduce herself to the authorities and didn't want to reveal her birth name.

Gazing at the rising sun ascending over the deserts of neighbouring Jordan, Naomi let out a sigh. It was a good Gift she possessed. The Great Crystal had given her powerful photokinetic abilities, the ability to fly at supersonic speeds and enhanced visual senses similar to Superman's powers, which her battle line often used for exploration and/or search-and-rescue purposes right from the Dawn of Power; her first-self had been the Yizibajohei equivalent of an American Air Force pararescueman who scoured the foreboding woods and endless ice of the planet's southern polar continent to locate stranded travellers.

Like many pretty girls Tariko Katabarbe had met on her travels, Naomi had endured a considerable amount of hardship by the time she met the current incarnation of the Trickster of the Show two years ago. In the case of the native of one of the settlements still standing near Bethlehem in the West Bank, she and her family had been caught in the crossfire of the seemingly never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict over who controlled parts of the Holy Land. Her parents had been killed, but she and her sister Rivkah had survived, eventually moving into the western suburbs of Israel's capital city to reside with an aunt. Before that happened, Tariko found them amid the rubble of their house, then easily persuaded them to become Gifted once she got the chance to see them rescued by local security forces.

Currently, Rivkah was only pre-Gifted; Naomi had accepted her Gift a year ago.

At this time, the baker's elder daughter was a member of the _**Tori Simnie**_ (" _ **Salvation Alliance**_ "), a new battle-group of Terran-born Yizibajohei from all parts of the Middle East who sought out young people their age suffering abuse or enduring other horrible situations to offer the chance to become Gifted and thus be able to realistically defend themselves from the many dangers in the region. Of course, like anyone who knew the most horrible part of Tariko's own pre-Gifting at the hand of her well-meaning yet grieving adopted mother a decade before, Naomi and her peers understood how important it was that the choice be made _**willingly**_. Still, given what was happening in Iraq with the recent rise of the "Islamic State" — earning them the terrible ire of the other group of Yizibajohei-type metahumans now active in the region, the _**Tutoam Kimr'be**_ (" _ **Angels of Darkness**_ "); already, the world's news media were starting to pick up on stories of metahuman girls tearing into the maniacs following Abū Bakr al-Baghdādī, especially after those lunatics beheaded an innocent person and posted the recording of such on the Internet — those the Alliance's members located rarely refused the offer.

Ending the communications link over her Personal Administrative Assistant, she turned back to the two younger children she had been speaking with. "Sorry about that," she apologized.

"What happened?" asked the younger girl currently with her, one just past the cusp of puberty named Maya Barron. Born to a family who lived in Lotan in the Negev Desert near the Jordanian border that had expressed a deep hatred of Muslims dating back to the War of Independence in 1948, the slender yet tomboyish brunette with the hazel eyes befriended her current companion, a raven-haired, dark-eyed Palestinian who was the son of a merchant from nearby Ketura named Malik bin Muḥammad, when they were in primary school. That friendship had done much to help Maya reject her parents' deeply-rooted Islamophobia...even of the elder Barrons would understandably become angry when they found out about her befriending an _**Arab**_ of all people. When they threatened to contact the authorities to have Malik and his parents taken from Ketura — even when they had been invited to live there by the leaders of that kibbutz! — the pair of children ran away in fear, making their way north into the West Bank and relative "safety". Naomi encountered them when Malik tried to pick her pocket while she was touring the Muslim parts of eastern Jerusalem. One look told her everything she needed to know.

After hearing their story, she made an offer.

"Remember I told you about how I got my Gift and who helped me get it?" she asked. After they nodded, she said, "It turns out Tariko was busy seeking new friends in her old hometown in Japan...but for some really strange reason, she was magically obliviated of all her memories of Yiziba and transformed back into her birth form. Kasuga Ayumu just found her and got her turned back to normal." She took a deep breath. "Tariko's also finally accepted her Gift as Coyote."

"How?!" a wide-eyed Malik wondered as he immediately tried to imagine who could have taken down a wonderful woman like _**Tariko Katabarbe**_ , who was clearly blessed by God Himself to have gone forth to become the saviour of lost children such as they.

Naomi shook her head. "I'm not sure exactly. According to what Hasegawa Chisame learned from Mihama Chiyo when she was contacted by Miss Ayumu, it has to do with the umale from Uru and that Tag Race they ran six months ago that was suppressed in the news."

That made the younger teens scowl. It had nearly caused a war when space taxis tried to steal the plentiful oil under the sands of Arabia just six months ago; fortunately for all of humanity, the mysterious "Men In Black" had been able to get the black gold restored to where it had been found without any harm to the environment. And while the fact that Redet Lum had been able to "pay" the taxi driver off with some of her own power to send him away, four Japanese boys who had become the warlord's daughter's "Stormtroopers" were now the objects of much cursing among the people of the Middle East, especially among the nations who were members of OPEC. That was all thanks to the Stormtroopers being the idiots who had actually called down the damned thing in the first place...all to go see the warlord's daughter they all clearly desired! Once the details of that incident were published thanks to the Japanese interior ministry, the leaders of ISIL immediately issued a fatwā demanding their deaths and the death of the "alien devil-girl" who was the ultimate cause of that incident.

"Was Miss Tariko involved?" Maya asked. "That thing with the space taxi?"

"I don't know, but I think so," the older Israeli answered with a shrug. "Whoever did this obviously knew that if any of us hears or sees the name 'Moroboshi Ataru' in the media, a whole STORM of us would go to Tomobiki to seek her out. Given that those umale are living there now, that could have easily provoked a massive fight scene, even a repeat of the Mother of All Fight Scenes centuries ago. So if Tariko was involved in any way, shape or form, people here won't know of it."

"What are her plans?" Maya's friend then wondered; they hadn't reached the stage where they'd be comfortable as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend".

"Keep silent for the time being," Naomi stated. "What the Angels are doing up north right now is easily disguised given how people tend to misinterpret things. The umale know of the magicals living among us and how fanatic they are in keeping that secrecy statute of theirs intact." She shook her head. "But whoever did this aroused the anger of the Trickster of the Show. According to the stories of the Dawn of Power I've heard about, Coyote's fury was said to be violent enough to even scare _**Infinity**_!"

That made the young teens shudder as they imagined what a fight scene between Tariko Katabarbe and Kasuga Ayumu could be like. During the time Naomi had been with them, she regaled them with many tales of the current incarnation of the Goddess Who Walks Among Men, especially the times she allowed people to get synthetic "battle doll" bodies to help them control their Gifts. The Archangel of Mortality herself — the executioner of the heretic Usāmah bin Lādin who saw so many in New York and Washington killed nearly ten years ago — was one who had benefited from Kasuga Ayumu's largess.

"Those people from Uru are monsters!" Maya sulkily noted as she wrapped her arms around her bent knees. "What made them think they've got any right to invade us, especially with all the other neighbouring races keeping a watch on things here?! If they'd come in peace or to help us in some way against other aliens, that's one thing...but to pretend to want to CONQUER us...?!"

Naomi chuckled. "Well, they won't be a problem very soon..."

* * *

 ** _In a cave on Yiziba, the next afternoon..._**

 _ **Nesu...TEMDUO!**_

Naomi smiled as she watched Malik emerge from the glowing wall of crystal that formed the inner end of the Cave of the Future near Habitation One, the effective "capital city" of the Free Planetary State of Yiziba on the northern polar continent several hundred kilometres south of Tariko Katabarbe's hillside cabin. The young Palestinian was now clad in a bright yellow jumpsuit with pale blue accents, a mace-like symbol in dark blue surrounded by a ring of thunderbolts. She knew through the memories of her past-self that Temduo — his popular tag-line would be "the Living Lightning" — had the ability to weld massive levels of electricity to the point where s/he could transform her/himself into a bolt of energy similar to how the American comic book hero the Human Torch turned himself into living flame.

"Are you alright?" she asked as the merchant's son came over to embrace her.

"It's a miracle...!" Malik breathed out.

A cough made the two turn to gaze upon the Bright Genius of the Young Guns standing nearby, who had what looked like a super-advanced version of an iPad in her hand. As the woman born Mihama Chiyo smiled at him, Malik blushed in embarrassment. Seeing that, Naomi tried not to giggle; not even the most dark heel on this planet could make him/herself resist that super-cute smile of hers. "Malik-san, how would you like your battle-name interpreted back on Earth?" the native of Itabashi in Tōkyō asked.

He hummed for a moment, then smiled. "' _ **Vájra**_ '."

That made Chiyo blink. "That's _Sanskrit_! Wouldn't you want it...?!"

"In Arabic or Hebrew?" he finished before he shook his head. "No, Miss Chiyo, that's not necessary. In the eyes of the umale like Miss Tariko's 'wife', we are not Muslim or Jewish or followers of Shintō or anyone else. We are Terran first." He impishly smiled. "Besides, my father has friends in India whom he met during his ḥajj to Makka. He always liked Buddhist theories and legends."

"Oh...!"

The Great Crystal then glowed again...

 _ **Nesu...HIEGA!**_

Emerging from the wall of mesonium was Maya. She was dressed in a deep purple jumpsuit with black belt and boots, the suit decorated with chains of colourful sahasrāra-like symbols up the sides to form a central symbol over her chest. Naomi shook her head in amusement, instantly sensing the influence-by-proxy of Malik's father in the choice of his future daughter-in-law's Gift. Maya was the current incarnation of the psychic nicknamed the "All-Seeing Sage of the East" in previous incarnations; her first-self was a religious philosopher who helped save many villages on the eastern equatorial continent during the years of the Dawn of Power. While not as powerful a telepath as Chiyo's friend Mizuhara Yomi, the native of Lotan now also possessed some telekinetic abilities, normally used in levitation.

"Well?!" the Searching Maiden of Light asked. "What do you think?!"

Maya shuddered. "It's wonderful...!"

"Maya-san...?"

Remembering the other girl's presence, the young Israeli girl hummed before she nodded. "' _ **Véda**_ '."

Chiyo giggled. _Why am I not so surprised...?_

Naomi nodded. "So now we have to get you two someplace to ensure any issues of Post-Gifting Shock don't end up causing unnecessary damage," she announced.

"I'm looking forward to it!" Malik exclaimed as he allowed electricity to crackle between his hands and lash out into the ceiling of the Cave.

Everyone giggled as they headed towards the entrance, where Asakura Kazumi was now standing in her uniform as the Voice of the Show, hand-held camcorder before her eyes to transmit the first images of the two newest Terrans to be Gifted out into the public media networks across Yiziba. As both Malik and Maya flashed peace signs to the camera, the latter psionically said, «I feel much the same. There's so much that I understand now.» She then frowned. «Part of me wishes that my family could too...»

"It'll be alright, Maya-san!" Chiyo instantly cheered. "It'll be alright!"

"So where to now?" Malik asked.

Naomi smiled at the two newest members of the Salvation Alliance.

"Anywhere you want..."

 _ **Fin...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

Quick translation list: **Kibbutz** — Gathering/Clustering; **Nesu** — Behold; **Ḥajj** — Pilgrimage; **Sahasrāra** — Thousand-petalled.


	2. Diamond Punk Candy

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** ** _Copyright Act_** **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Diamond Punk Candy  
**_ by Regina Magia

 _Walk This Way_ (1975), written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry

* * *

 _ **Shinjuku, a Friday afternoon in late fall, hours after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth...**_

"It's official," Tetsuya Tamiko said as she put her Personal Administrative Assistant down before she whooped in delight. "Those Oni jackasses are gone...and they ain't comin' back!"

A wild cheer escaped the other girls in the studio. "Music to my ears!" Uchida Minako said. "I mean, I've always been open to Terrans and non-Terrans interacting...but not when Earth's getting _**invaded**_!"

"I say we have a celebration concert, either in a bar here or at the Barkeep's place on Yiziba," suggested Odagiri Kiriko, earning nods from the drummer and bassist of Diamond Punk Candy — known among both fans and detractors alike on Yiziba by the battle-group name " _ **Ramlato Buotuto Guota**_ " — the band the three girls and two friends had formed less than a year before their Giftings.

"Great idea, Kiri-chan," said Kijima Noriko, the band's vocalist, as she tested the microphone in her hand. "We can invite some of the other Gifted who are in the area."

"I'm down with that," Sierra Hull, DPC's turntable master and the only non-Japanese member of the band, said with a thumbs up from where she lay on a couch nearby. It had been the Nashville native's suggestion to integrate aspects of hip hop like record scratching into their music when the band came together three years ago, sometime after the four natives of Shinjuku had befriended the daughter of one of Sony Mobile's programming specialists who had come to Japan to work. It had been an idea that had turned out pretty well for DPC when they broke out into the local music scene.

The young twenty-somethings met Tariko Katabarbe during a performance at a nightclub in Itabashi after Takino Tomo, Kagura Michiko and Mizuhara Koyomi — then about to enter Azuma Senior High where they would be joined by Mihama Chiyo and Kasuga Ayumu — got their Gifts. As the younger girls were having a snack at a yatai outside the nightclub's main doors, Tariko's "girl in danger" radar kicked in as some power wires under the stage started a fire. As smoke filled the crowded dance floor, Yomi used her telepathy to calm people down and get them to evacuate the nightclub while Tomo and Kagura charged in to carry out Tamiko and her band mates, then retrieved their gear. After the Mistress of the Mind-Dive made sure none of the bystanders understood what actually happened, Tamiko asked the future Trickster of the Show, " _Where the hell can we get cool powers like_ **that** _?!_ "

Tariko happily explained what she had done for nearly a decade.

Naturally, the members of DPC got the chance to sample the effectively orphaned girl's sinful black forest cake that allowed the musicians' bodies and souls to fully sync with the Great Crystal of Power thanks to a very high infusion of meson in the chocolate.

Within a week, their band held their first "music jam scene" at the Barkeep's galaxy-famous tavern located on the northern side of Habitation One.

Much to the shock and surprise of many Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei like Tariko, both the Extreme Archaist and the Preacher — two of the most socially conservative Yizibajohei alive today — thought that concert quite interesting even if they had never heard Terran hip hop rock before.

As for the girls themselves...

Noriko became _**Tuoum**_ (" _ **Treble**_ "), a woman who could pitch her voice into the high ultrasonic range, easily affecting even some of the strongest of the FISS-types with the high frequencies she could unleash, which could stun potential opponents before they could bring her to harm.

Minako was now _**Tuolato**_ (" _ **Lustre**_ "), who was a light-manipulator that could easily blind anyone with sensitive eyes thanks to direct blasts of energy right into one's face whenever things got too intense.

Tamiko had absorbed the Gift of _**Suo Myuo**_ (" _ **Wolf Queen**_ "). One of the many who could manipulate ki to create energy claws like the famous Hyena (now living as Xander Harris of Sunnydale in California), the band drummer could use her powers to beat multiple percussion instruments at once.

Kiriko called herself _**Lemim**_ (" _ **Footloose**_ "). A telekinetic who had been the Yizibajohei equivalent of a ballerina mistress in her first life, she used her Gift to perform some of the most incredible dance moves on the stage, which drove fans of the band crazy with the passion of her performance.

And Sierra became _**Ruoae**_ (" _ **Swagger**_ "). The band's turntable master was a mid-level FISS-type who could serve as the heavy hitter of the group in fight scenes as well as playing multiple records on stage.

Since that day, Diamond Punk Candy's time away from home was largely split between practising, performing and playing "silent hero" in the back streets of Tōkyō...

...though, much to the surprise and concern of many others, they didn't have quite as many fight scenes as some other Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei active today.

"Alright," Noriko then declared as she grabbed her microphone and moved to take her place in the middle of the stage at the group's private studio, located in Kabuki-chō northeast of Shinjuku Station. "Let's get practising." As the others in the band assumed their places, she asked, " _Walk This Way_?"

"Sounds good to me," said Sierra as she took her place.

"Okay, then...one, two, three, four!"

Tamiko brought down her sticks while Sierra did a quick record scratch, the echo of that screeching over the large speakers at both sides of the stage. Kiriko followed up with the opening riffs of the Aerospace classic. As the others launched into the song, Noriko twirled her mic before starting to sing...

 _"Backstroke lover always hidin' 'neath the cover  
_ _'Till I talked to my daddy," he say...!_

When the chorus came, the other girls joined in...

 _Walk this way!  
_ _Talk this way...!_

As her band mates played, Noriko smiled to herself.

Sure, fight scenes got your adrenaline going...

...but there was nothing quite like rock music!

Not a thing!

 _Like this!_

 _ **Fin...**_


	3. The Mistress of Velocity Claims Her Man

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** ** _Copyright Act_** **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** ** _The Mistress of Velocity Claims Her Man!  
_** by Fred Herriot

Including characters and situations from _Love Hina_ , created by Akamatsu Ken; _The Flash_ , created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino; and _Sister Princess_ , created by Tenhiro Naoto and Kimino Sakurako.

Also including characters and situations from the fanfic story _Lonely Souls_ and _Avalonians at Hinata-sō_ , written by Fred Herriot.

* * *

 _ **Hinata (west of Yokosuka), a Friday in mid-summer near the end of the Tomobiki Pseudo-War, mid-afternoon...**_

"Why is she so CRANKY?!"

Hearing that depressed shout from the resident mad scientist of the former hot springs hotel which now served as a "dorm for maniac girls" — as the residents of the town west of Yokosuka often called the Hinata-sō behind the backs of all its current residents — both Narusegawa Naru and Aoyama Motoko could only sigh. "Su-san, clearly something is disturbing Shinobu-chan and has been for quite some time," the expert kendō-ka from Kyōto calmly stated as she continued to dabble linseed oil on her blade while relaxing on one of the couches in the recreation room. "She has asked you on several occasions to not eat food that isn't served during the meals. You have enough bananas available to you in your dorm room. The food that Urashima has to purchase for all of us isn't endless, you know."

Hearing that, Kaolla Su harrumphed as she sat down on a nearby couch. "I can't even walk into her room now, much less sneak through the vents near her room!" the second princess to the throne of Molmol in the central Pacific — not that her current dorm mates knew of her true origins — complained as she crossed her arms. As the older girls gazed sympathetically at the playful sprite from "India" — much that Kaolla could be an annoyance and didn't comprehend the concept of privacy at all, she was also a great help in dealing with many things — the dark-skinned blonde pouted. Why couldn't Shinobu understand that she just wanted to have fun? "Something's happened in this place that really bugging me! I can't try to get into Onii-chan's room now, much less sneak into Shinobu-chan's room...!"

"Which, by the way, is invasion of privacy, Su-san," another woman's voice then said from the main entrance. "When are you finally going to realize this isn't your palace?"

Kaolla awked in frustration while Naru and Motoko turned around just as Maehara Shinobu walked into the room, accompanied by a girl of about her age dressed in stylish jeans and a short-sleeved button blouse. Noting the tenné brown hair that was style in beautiful teardrop pigtails behind her ears, both the Tōdai rōnin and the heiress of the Shinmei-ryū gaped. "Mihama Chiyo-chan?!" Naru gasped, her jaw now around her knees. "Shinobu-chan, how on Earth do you know HER?!"

Shinobu gazed evenly at her, which sent chills down the older women's backs; also present was Konno Mitsune, who was as surprised as her friends were that the famous pre-teen genius from Itabashi had come to visit Hinata. "That is none of your business, Narusegawa-san," the raven-haired native of the hot springs town near Yokohama stated. "Chiyo-san is my friend. That is all you need to know."

That made the older women balk at that icy cold shoulder their resident cook was now giving them. That had been quite a frequent occasion, especially over most of the last three months, after Shinobu had gone out with friends — as to who these friends were, none of the older residents at the Hinata-sō had any idea as Shinobu hadn't brought any of them over to visit — for a week-long camping trip. Before someone could say anything, a side door leading to where the hot springs were located opened, revealing a grinning raven-haired woman Motoko's age, dressed in preppy clothes. "Oi! Shinobu-chan!" Takino Tomo called out. "You didn't tell me you had all these cool hot springs here!"

Shinobu yelped before she gazed intently at her friend, thumbing Chiyo's classmate. "Chiyo! What's the bonkura doing here?! I thought you promised me you'd come down alone!"

That made Tomo jolt. " _ **OI! WHO'RE YOU CALLING A BONKURA, MAEHARA?!**_ "

Hearing that threatening tone from the resident wild child of Chiyo's homeroom class at Azuma Senior High School, quickly sensing the threat from the other woman, Motoko swept to her feet, grasping her nōdachi. "Takino-san! Don't you even THINK of threatening Shinobu-chan like that!"

Seeing the kendō-ka set herself up to ultimately face down one of the most deadly beings now living on Earth, Shinobu and Chiyo shook their heads. Well, this was going to happen sooner or later. "Don't kill her, Tomo-chan," the latter calmly said as she and her friend moved to walk out of the recreation lounge in the northern wing of the Hinata-sō, making the older residents gape on hearing that statement. "You can maim her and her friends to your heart's content. Keep the princess and the drunk out of our hair, please." As Kaolla blinked and Mitsune squawked on hearing that, Chiyo added, "I'm sure Keitarō-san deserves a break from her always proving what an androphobic MONSTER Motoko-san is!" As Motoko yelped on hearing that from the pre-teen genius, Chiyo and Shinobu calmly stepped out of the room.

As the other girls gaped in disbelieving shock on noting that their youngest dorm mate hadn't said anything at all to counter what her friend had just instructed her classmate, the sudden and quite loud cracking of knuckles caused them to jolt before they turned to stare at Tomo.

Who now had a very hungry smile on her face...

* * *

 _ **Shinobu's bedroom...**_

"You do realize there are Niphentaxian observers still here in this town," Shinobu noted.

"Don't worry about that, Shinobu," Chiyo said as she gave her friend a wave of assurance. She was in her battle suit as the Bright Genius of the Young Guns; Shinobu definitely liked Kasuga Ayumu's suggestion the previous April about Chiyo naming herself _**R'bemguo**_ (" _ **Prodigy**_ ") in lieu of using her battle line's more commonly-known name. Currently, microscopic nanites deployed by Chiyo from a pouch on her belt were moving to stitch very complex sensor-jamming filaments in the walls, ceiling and floor of Shinobu's bedroom. This wasn't just to keep a certain nosy young mad inventor of a princess who lived in one of the dorm rooms on the floor above from finding out things she shouldn't; it also helped keep this part of the old hot springs hotel intact from all the damage a certain kendō-ka caused unwillingly when she freaked out at anything the kanrinin supposedly did which met her disapproval.

Atop that, given that her current host was also Gifted, Chiyo knew it was prudent to make sure that anything which could set Shinobu off would stay out of her private space.

Given the specific Gift she had, it had been necessary for Shinobu to endure a certain "body-swap" thanks to the Goddess Who Walks Among Men, thus ensuring that the youngest of the Hinata-sō's tenants wouldn't end up DYING because she couldn't control the incredible power she now welded.

That was the ultimate curse of all the members of the _**Mintyuo-ruo**_.

The _**Young Guns**_.

But thanks to Chiyo's remarkable classmate from Wakayama...

"Right now, Yomi-san is enjoying making sure all the Niphentaxians who are in that apartment block down the street from here won't even suspect what sort of hell could drop down on their heads later on today," Chiyo stated with a churlish smile as she monitored the reports from the nanites through a display function in her goggles. She then winced on hearing a sudden cracking noise, that followed by a very painful scream. "Guess Motoko-san just found out that she could be smashed away just as easily as she does Keitarō-san all the time," she then commented, uncaring of the fact that a certain kendō-ka probably now had some broken bones. "Honestly, what is that woman's problem?"

"She's jealous of the fact that her sister has found true happiness and that the 'legacy' of her martial arts school has just been dumped on her shoulders when she still hasn't really figured out what to do with her life. Filial piety is one thing, but the Avalonians at Raika Girl's High are starting to get her really used to modern things," Shinobu calmly stated, speaking with the mature cant in her voice that had come to unnerve a lot of her peers at Hinata Middle School since she had accepted the destiny given to her by a kind Tariko Katabarbe two years ago during the time a confused, hurt Shinobu found herself caught in her parents nasty divorce proceedings. While she accepted Urashima Hinata's offer to reside at the Hinata-sō at that time to get away from such mental trauma, ultimately cutting herself out of her parents' lives once and for all, Shinobu also spent time on Yiziba, where she got the chance to embrace the power of the Mistress of Velocity, _**Gaekuoruto**_ (" _ **Hyperspeed**_ "), the fastest person that ever lived...and alongside Mihama Chiyo, become one of the current generation of the Young Guns.

Taking THAT particular Gift would have marked Shinobu for an early death. The true tragedy of the Young Guns was that all of them inherited powers that were just far too great for their young bodies to handle without killing them from sheer energy overload before they could grow into them after puberty began. In previous generations, people who became Hyperspeed often literally ran themselves into fatal heart ruptures before their tenth birthdays. Sadly, given the common Yizibajohei attitude about standing up for oneself in the face of a very cruel Universe, previous generations of that team of super-children never got any real assistance in better mastering their abilities before something killed them far before their time. Fortunately in this generation, Kasuga Ayumu had struck on the idea of using the synthezoid battle dolls stored in the pocket dimension known more commonly on Yiziba as the "Doll House" to help people like her best friend Mihama Chiyo and Maehara Shinobu better control their powers; the synthetic beings came with a remarkable housekeeping computer that would help the soul inhabiting it to better control her/his Gift in a way that mere experience and knowledge couldn't.

While she was on the World of the Forge adjusting to the new reality of her life as the literal fastest woman on two planets, Shinobu fell under the effective care of Kaetu Osar'bena, an elderly native of Yiziba's southern polar continent who was the incarnation of one of the most powerful beings alive, _**Latoram**_ (" _ **Stone Mountain**_ "), the Unmovable One. Someone who had never got the chance to bear her own children, Kaetu gladly adopted the effectively-orphaned Shinobu as her own, helping her adjust to her incredible power both as Hyperspeed and as a battle doll; such a combination had never existed on the World of the Forge and learning what could happen to the current Terran-born generation of the Young Guns was paramount before they could find themselves caught in some nasty fight scenes.

Sadly, Kaetu's time in this life would come swiftly to a close; around the time Urashima Keitarō was made kanrinin of the Hinata-sō just before the Tag Race happened in Tomobiki, the Unmovable One had fallen thanks to one of the more nastier native heels on that planet, who used an ebony mesonium blade to piece the elderly woman's heart; scant few on Yiziba could survive THAT even if Stone Mountain was as tough as Superman in many ways! Fortunately, Margo Black's twin sister Nora Chapelle had been on the planet at the time. Since she was the first of the Young Guns in this generation — the Living Dynamo, she was known on Yiziba as _**Riekbu**_ (" _ **Accretor**_ ") — the adopted native of Georgia used her powers to kill the heel while Shinobu was able to retrieve the fractured Gift crystal that emerged from Kaetu's corpse before it disintegrated and the knowledge and power of Stone Mountain was lost forever; the fact that such chalices could be wrecked by weapons forged of ebony meson made them effectively forbidden on a world with scan few social rules and conventions governing its population. Fortunately, thanks to both the Goddess Who Walks Among Men and the Archangel of Mortality, the mesonium vessel containing the Gift and memories of all the incarnations of the Unmovable One throughout the history of the Great Show of Life were perfectly shielded from discorporation. But before it could be returned to the Great Crystal of Power to await the coming of its next incarnation, _**Luna Lovegood**_ of all people sent a warning from Hogwarts that it would be Shinobu who would be the one that would welcome the next Stone Mountain into the Great Show.

Even if some felt that the current incarnation of Prophecy was just as kooky as Infinity could be at times, not even Doctor Death had argued about that prediction.

Even if doing _**that**_ would fly totally against seasons and series of traditions...

Even if there was the tragic example of what happened to Tariko when she was a child and forced to change from being a BOY to become the new Trickster of the Show because her adopted mother had totally forgotten that the Gift of Tuyuki always switched genders between the generations...

If the Far-Seer of the Cosmic Mage Gild had Seen THAT...!

"What about Naru-san?" Chiyo asked.

Shinobu shrugged, then she jolted on hearing a yelp of pain from the Tōdai aspirant echo down from the recreation room; no doubt, she had tried to hit the current incarnation of the Wild Warrior of Passion with one of her punches...and just wrecked her hand on skin and bone as tough as depleted uranium. "She's still got a crush on her old tutor and finds it pretty uncomfortable that some of the older Avalonian observers here in town are taking a keen interest in Keitarō, even with him still thinking she's his promise girl from when they were children." She sighed. "I'll hate to disappoint the Avalonians in town; Eriko-sensei is my tutor in cram school and she's got a crush on him something awful."

Chiyo chuckled. "Lucky thing we got rid of the observers in and around Tōkyō in the weeks after what happened over Phentax Twelve. No one will be able to warn the crowd here in Hinata that we're about to crash their scene. Tariko-san and her half-sisters have been busy over the last week cleaning out the ones in Tomobiki while Ataru-san's been distracting that whatever-it-is under the Tarōzakura Hill that's trying to make people forget Lum-san." As Shinobu giggled — the liberation of the Avalonians on the anniversary of D-Day had been a Mother of All Fight Scenes to remember, way better than that thing with the Urusians two centuries ago — the Bright Genius sighed. "You have a cake?"

"Cooked exactly to Tariko-sempai's recipe," Shinobu said with a playful wink. "I had to smash the princess on the head a couple times with a skillet to make sure she didn't dare take it for herself. She's not worthy of a Gift given what she really is. Neither are the others; Yiziba would destroy them as thoroughly as it would destroy Ataru-sempai's would-be 'girlfriend'." She then gazed in amusement out her window. "Once he gets back from shopping, we'll have a private candlelight dinner."

Chiyo grinned at her friend's sense of timing. "Lucky thing I made sure I told Tomo-chan that she could indulge themselves on ALL of them. A good warm-up for tonight's fight scene."

Shinobu laughed...

* * *

 _ **Suppertime...**_

"Where are the other girls, Shinobu-chan?"

Shinobu smiled as she walked over with a tray of food, putting it down on the dining room table. "One of my friends was visiting and she brought a friend. The others got snoopy as usual and my friend's friend decided to teach them to mind their own business," she said as she sat across from Urashima Keitarō. "They won't be here tonight, so it's just you and me. Maybe now, they'll understand that they're not as privileged as they've always acted as, especially when it comes to you."

Hearing this, the kanrinin and three-time Tōdai rōnin could only sigh, hoping he wouldn't get a headache on hearing his youngest boarder complain yet again about the other residents. Ever since after he had come and had done his best to cheer up the youngest girl living at the old hot springs hotel, Shinobu had shown a stern backbone when it came to dealing with the others. No matter what Motoko or Naru did to make Shinobu see they were just protecting her from Keitarō's "perverted" behaviour, the younger woman refused to listen, hitting them back with information gleaned from adults in town about how neighbours wondered if the older residents at the Hinata-sō shouldn't be arrested for multiple charges of _**assault and battery**_ , often with _**deadly weapons**_ such as Motoko's sword. Keitarō tried to help moderate things whenever he could, but neither side would bend. It had gotten worse over the last three months, with Shinobu openly calling for Keitarō to evict the older women if they continued to act like "spoiled brats" and not behave like responsible tenants and proper guests of the Urashima Clan of Hayama. That usually shut people like Motoko and Naru up quickly and made Mitsune back off from trying to stir up the problem further just for her own amusement; the "E" word was the most feared word in their language given personal problems awaiting them back home. That didn't mention Kaolla, who was becoming more and more frustrated by the day concerning the fact that Shinobu didn't "play" with her and had actively moved many times to stop the princess from "playing" with Keitarō; since the princess of Molmol had a good home to fall back to if necessary, evicting her wouldn't be a problem.

"Shinobu-chan..."

"Sempai, please! Enough!" she hissed out as she gave him a weary, exasperated look. "You have a heart as large as the Sun...but there are times that your willingness to help people does a lot more harm than good. You've got to stop trying to blame yourself for the others' problems. It's not your fault they can't respect what Obā-chan decided would happen when you were asked to be kanrinin...even if she should have warned you ahead of time that she had made this place a girl's dorm house!" She shook her head as she sat back in her chair, then moved to serve herself from the food there. "Stop coddling them! They need to understand YOU'RE the kanrinin here. You make the rules here, not them."

He looked at her, then he sighed as he moved to get his own food. Much that his mind agreed to everything that Shinobu said about him, his heart was still locked so much on getting into Tōdai and trying to find his promised girl — which his innermost heart still declared was Narusegawa Naru despite his recent discoveries concerning Otohime Mutsumi — to concentrate on the practical issues being the manager of the Hinata-sō forced on his shoulders. Much that he had been grateful to his grandmother for giving him a roof over his head after he was forced out of his family home in nearby Hayama in the wake of his second attempt at getting into Tōkyō University, he didn't want to do anything that would bring harm to the others under his charge; it would be a betrayal of what he privately promised his grandmother when he become the dorm manager. Yes, he knew the girls had troubles, even Shinobu. Still, to deny them a place to stay by making the Hinata-sō so inhospitable to them was plain wrong!

Yet...

Wait a minute...

No...!

Could it be...?

"Are you an Avalonian?"

That made Shinobu gasp in surprise as she stared wide-eyed at him before she laughed. "Who told you?!" she then demanded. "Eriko-sensei?! Was it Toshiko-sempai?! Who?!"

"You ARE an Avalonian?!" Keitarō exclaimed.

That made her laughter increase. "Oh, Forge! No! I'm not! Relax!" she assured him before bursting out into another bout of giggles. "Gods! Keitarō, if I was like Eriko-sensei, I'd have a perverted creep as my 'master' and I'd be bound by some genetic 'loyalty lock' in serving a race of umale who wouldn't understand the concept of 'privacy' if it bit them in the buttocks! And if I was old enough, I'd be a living sex toy for my perverted 'master' and definitely not be living here! Forge! They're WORSE than our resident princess is at times! Gods!" She sipped her tea. "Oh, that's so funny! Me?! An _**Avalonian**_?! Ugh! They're very pleasing to the eyes, but no thank you! I got a better Gift than becoming like that!"

He took that in. "What are you then?"

That made her gaze tranquilly his way. "Someone who met a traveller from a world that Eriko-sensei's 'mistress' is so scared of, she can never hear the name of the planet or the people who live there without having a fatal heart attack," she said with a content smile. "Someone who — when those deadbeats I was born from decided I was going to be a ping-pong ball in their fight over who got what in the divorce — was comforted by people who are more caring and more understanding than anyone I've ever met, even Obā-chan and you. Someone who inherited a Gift from the place Raeburn-shōsa's Power Jewel was created that made me so fast, I can penetrate into other _**dimensions**_ if I don't watch myself!" She hummed. "I hope I'd meet Allen-sensei if I do that again! He was such a nice man..."

His jaw dropped. "You're _**Yizibajohei**_?!"

Her eyebrow arched. "How did you find out? Who told you?"

A wry smile crossed his face. "History books."

That made her blink for a moment as that surprising answer registered in her mind, then she breathed out, blowing a locket of her hair away from her forehead. "Oh, right!" she lamented. "I forgot that Raeburn-shōsa explained where the Power Jewel came from in that interview during the Greater East Asia War after she fought those umale worshipping Übermenschen that one time!"

Curiosity crossed his face. "So what are you?"

She winked before pulling out what looked like a black slate of metal the size of a paperback novel, that with a silver crystal on the surface. Tapping the crystal, she said, "Chiyo? It's Shinobu. We clear?"

"Just got them rounded up and put on ice, Shinobu-chan!" Takino Tomo called back, the noise of many people screaming and shouting in the background. "Chiyosuke's just telling them that Tariko's made their 'Final Solution' inert, all ready for the big time-switch scene to blow up their 'Army of Lum'. Not to mention that sizzling hot Sakuya-chan just ordered her great-grandma's bodyguards to pound all the umale in Tomobiki into protoplasm so Ataru-kun can get away from them for a month! According to Liz Wakefield, the ice bitch from Triton's just transported Lum, Ran and Jariten to her planet to get them back to Uru so they can be put into the intensive care ward!" She laughed uproariously as wails for anguish and screams of holy vengeance then echoed in the background, that followed by a barked " _ **YIZIBA!**_ " from Mihama Chiyo, which turned those shouts into shrieks of mortal terror. "I think they get it now!" the Wild Warrior of Passion then lamented. "How are things with the hunkmeister?"

As Keitarō blushed as red as a cherry on realizing that Tomo was actually talking about HIM, Shinobu smiled. "It's a slow and steady seduction scene, Tomo-chan," she admitted, which made his cheeks go nuclear on hearing that passionate tone from the Mistress of Velocity. "Pity I'm still too young for a proper pillow scene! At least in THIS incarnation, I can finally appreciate something like that!"

"What about ME, Shinobu-chan?!" a girl's voice whined in the background.

That made Shinobu blinked before she drooped her head. Oh, Forge preserve her! She totally forgot about Kashiwamura Moe, a classmate of hers from Hinata Middle School whom she had pegged to be an Avalonian assistant observer to the small Niphentaxian team in the hot springs town several months ago, sometime before the bioroid factory had been yanked off Phentax Twelve and the Avalonians were liberated. "I'm flattered beyond belief, Moe! Trust me on this! I am! But we Yizibajohei prefer to deal with surei'cha before choosing potential marei'cha; our brains aren't wired like yours is! Let me work on Keitarō here first and let's wait for us to mature more before we do pillow scenes, okay?!"

"You gotta be Gifted first, Moe-san!" Chiyo then chided.

" _ **NO! MOE! YOU MUST REMAIN LOYAL TO THE GODDESS...!**_ "

 _KK-KRUNCH!_

"Whoever did that, thank you!" Keitarō called out. "Eriko-san?!"

"Hai, Keitarō-kun?!" the voice of the obvious ashi'cha of the Hinata Avalonians, private studies teacher Yamamoto Eriko, then called back over the PAA link from down the street.

"As soon as Shinobu-chan's friends from Yiziba..." He then winced on hearing a chorus of frightened screams echo in the background. "Gods!" he called out, shaking his head. "You sure were right about how they hate hearing that name, Toshiko-chan!" he then noted.

"Toshiko! What did you do?!" a man's fear-filled voice demanded.

"Actually, Tarash-kun, that was my fault!" a new girl's voice said.

"You call it your 'fault', Ayumu-san?!" Shinobu asked.

"Well, since Keitarō-kun wanted to help the girls here move into the Hinata-sō, I did an Infinite Wave a couple weeks ago that broke that silly thing Ganzo-ojiichan wanted out of their bodies!" Kasuga Ayumu admitted. "They've been waiting for us to get down here to get them out of their lives! Sorry, girls!"

Chants of forgiveness and acceptance echoed from many women in the background, that accompanied by more screams of vengeance from the Niphentaxians that the Azuma students just captured. "Well, as I was about to say as Ayumu-san there just effectively confirmed, Eriko-san, as soon as Chiyo-chan's friends can permanently send your 'masters' back to their home planet, you and your sisters can move into the Hinata-sō," Keitarō stated. "Much that I've been willing to admit that I'm happy to do whatever I can to help the people who live here already, I'm having issues paying the bills! I need _**tenants**_!"

Laughter filled the airwaves on hearing that while Shinobu's eyes sparkled in anticipation. Much that having Moe come to live here was a good thing — not to mention allowing the other bioroids to come live here as well — she'd have to make very sure the older ones clearly understood that it was HER that would be Urashima Keitarō's future wife once she was mature enough to marry him. Much that Yizibajohei didn't bother with the practice of marriage, Shinobu knew of the whole marei'cha/surei'cha process that governed Avalonians. While it would be a sincere form of flattery to watch Yamamoto Eriko and the others choose him as the future father of their children once the Hinata Avalonians were themselves Yizibajohei, Shinobu intended to win the ultimate fight scene for his heart.

Narusegawa Naru and Otohime Mutsumi didn't know what was about to hit them.

 _No matter what, you're MINE, Keitarō! I will NOT lose that fight scene!_

 _ **Fin...For Now!**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

As noted in the header to the first scene, this is set around the time of the **Tomobiki Pseudo-War** , which is what Mike Smith and I called the events in the latter half of the fourth _Yatsura_ movie, _Lum the Forever_. In the continuity of the main story, it occurs during the middle of August in 2012. In _Love Hina_ continuity, this would be set sometime after **Urashima Keitarō** failed the Centre Test a third time. Since the main part of _The End of the Circus_ is set in the latter half of November 2012, I'd put this before the _Love Hina_ manga story "A Little Lost Sheep on a Holy Night?!" (manga chapter #52).

Translation: **Tōdai** — Short term for " _Tōkyō Daigaku_ " ("Tōkyō University"); **Rōnin** — The classic term for a master-less samurai in the old days, this is now the term used for failed university applicants; **Bonkura** — Slang term often implying one's intelligence, the rough equivalent of the English "dimwit" or "dumbass"; **Nōdachi** — Field sword; **Kanrinin** — Manager; **Surei'cha** — Literally "the one with whom you have a child", this is the genetic co-parent of one's children in Sagussan society; **Marei'cha** — Literally "the one with whom you raise a child", this is the prospective parent's life-partner, who does NOT have to be a surei'cha in Sagussan society.

The **Hinata Avalonians** and their masters were all introduced in my story _Avalonians at Hinata-sō_ , which is a prequel story for _Phoenix From the Ashes_. They're ultimately based on characters created by the famous adult manga artist **Urushihara Satoshi** in his volume of portraits _Kan_ (released in 2012).


	4. Governess and Anima

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** ** _Copyright Act_** **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Governess and Anima  
**_ by Regina Magia

* * *

 _ **From a special written report by Asakura Kazumi (Windtalker) to the United Nations Special Committee on Alien Activities...**_

 _Although Tariko Katabarbe was the most successful Terran-turned-Yizibajohei "recruiter" that helped usher in Earth's Second Metahuman Era, she was by no means the ONLY one who actively sought natives of the planet to receive a Gift from the Great Crystal of Power. Several others across Earth that became Gifted by various means over the years can be counted among the ranks of those who solidified bonds between Earth and Yiziba, performing their own "recruiting drives", sometimes to the same degree as the Trickster of the Show did._

 _One of these other "recruiters" was a native of London named Eleanor Hawking, who became the twenty-sixth incarnation of the Teacher of the Young,_ **Nutyuor'be** _("_ **Governess** _"). Blessed with the ability to teleport, create force fields and heal with a touch, she continued her battle line's tradition of caring for the young, especially those who had lost parents to some disaster or another._

 _As part of this, she recruited a number of orphans, street kids and victims of parental abuse into the_ **R'beketu Taer'be** _(the "_ **Lost Kids** _"), which became a region-wide neighbourhood watch-type network active throughout New England..._

* * *

 _ **Bangor, Maine, the White Pine Children's Home, the Friday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, early afternoon...**_

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

The prime and bespectacled brown-haired woman blinked before she looked over to give the red-haired girl a smile. "It's quite all right," Eleanor Hawking stated, her voice bearing the formal tones of the Home Counties of England mixed with BBC standard. "Truth be told, I was somewhat distracted."

The other girl gazed in curiosity at her for a moment before she nodded, then she ran off. Watching her race off to join her friends, Eleanor smiled as her brown eyes glittered with delight, then she turned and entered her current establishment. One of her current group of Lost Kids, a charming lad of ten named Bruce Dreyfus who now also went by the battle name _**Bemrim**_ (" _ **Strobe**_ ") — he was one of many Named metahumans who didn't have a special "tag line" that described his powers or his role in the Great Show of Life — had been hanging around looking for potential "recruits" to "join the club" when he noticed a boy sitting under a tree near the children's home crying softly. The boy was named Rudo Bockarie; he was a refugee from Sierra Leone whose older brother had been killed while serving as a child soldier during that country's recent civil war. Rudo had been watching a movie with some of the other kids at a local recreation hall. In that film, Rudo watched a boy being held hostage and ended up having a "flashback scene" that brought back very painful memories of his early childhood. Bruce had taken pity on the young refugee's grief, then invited Rudo to come meet with Eleanor.

Not long after that, Rudo became the new incarnation of _**Kaeyuotuto**_ (" _ **Sunspot**_ "), soon showing he was quite creative in using his new flame-control powers...

"Um, excuse me?"

Eleanor jolted, then she turned to find herself facing a red-haired girl of about eleven. She recognized her as Holly Danvers, a close friend of Rudo's. "I remember you were here a few days ago, right before Rudo disappeared," Holly said as she pointed at the governess. "You know what happened to him?"

Eleanor smiled. "You remember Bruce, right?"

Holly nodded. "Yeah, he was here a few days ago talking to Rudo. I heard him say something about that Yiziba planet that's been all over the news because of that bomb those mean aliens put in Japan."

"Well, Bruce was inviting him to get a Gift of his own," the older woman explained. "Rudo's accepted."

"He's got _**superpowers**_?!" Holly yelped in a mix of surprise and curiosity.

"That's right!" Eleanor affirmed. "You want to go see him?"

The younger girl rapidly nodded her head...

* * *

 _ **In the back yard...**_

"Wow!" Holly breathed out after she watched her friend practice using his light-manipulation powers. Fortunately for all the Lost Kids, the property of the White Pine Children's Home had been layered with multiple defensive fields created by Elizabeth Wakefield to ensure no eavesdroppers would realize what was really happening here. Even if the local news was harping positively on the sudden arrival of what some pundits were now calling the "Second Age of Metahumans", there were the fanatic religious nuts, xenophobes and other such lunatics who wouldn't care for such beings possessing such powers living among them...especially given the understandable fear of how anarchic Yizibajohei society really was, with its open disdain of traditional Terran cultural mores such as belief in religion or the desire to be loyal to one's native nation-state. "So you have powers over light now?" she then asked.

Rudo nodded as he wiped his hands. "Yes!" the native of the northern town of Kabala near the border with the Gambia said. "I may not be very powerful...but I've found that how you use your abilities can give you an edge!" Here, he flashed his now-perfect teeth; a side-effect of the Gifting was to cure the young Sierra Leonean of any health issues like rotting bones and malnutrition.

"True," Eleanor mused. She was now wearing a lilac-and-white version of the older-pattern sleeved Yizibajohei jumpsuit, a symbol resembling a big heart with a little heart in the middle of it on her chest; she was one of the few who had a hood she could slip over her head mated to the top. Seated at a table on a veranda overlooking the large property the Centre was blessed with, she had been gazing on a group of crystals inside a box she brought out with her after she left Holly to watch her friend practice. "Odd!" she mused. "I thought there were thirteen Gift crystals here...but I only count eleven..."

"'Gift crystals'?!" Holly asked as she looked into the box, then picked up one of the crystals.

As she held it up to look at it more closely, it began to glow!

"Holly!" Rudo cried out...

...but it was too late.

Before anyone could react, the redhead's body lit up brightly, her clothes instantly disintegrating as the metaphysical bridge between the child born of the World of the Keystone Power Jewel and the very core of the Forge of the First Race was instantaneously formed; the crystal she had been holding had been instantly absorbed by her body as soon as the Gifting began. Seeing that, Eleanor winced as she remembered offering black forest cake of the same recipe that Tariko Katabarbe had long used when she did her own recruiting of potential Gift recipients to Rudo's friend a couple days before. With the crystals she had found drifting in the outer reaches of the Kaeyu system...!

She then blinked as a familiar voice boomed out from all around them...

 _ **Nesu...LO'OTATO!**_

As the Conservator's voice faded — and the Teacher of the Young found herself again thankful to the Wise Genius of the Circle of Thought when it came to including a sound-screen around her property to ensure people didn't hear the Voice of the Great Crystal speak like that — she gazed on Holly, who was now staring wide-eyed at herself, her body clad in a purple and light blue jumpsuit in the modern halter-top style, bearing a chest emblem resembling a will-o'-the-wisp from English folklore.

" _ **Anima**_...!" the just-Gifted Holly whispered, gazing at herself in wonder. She then closed her eyes and slowly rose into the air...just as several rocks and other small objects on the patio began to float and move closer to her in lazy orbits like planets rotating around their home star.

"What happened?!" Rudo then demanded.

"It seems she had the right frame of mind to become the new Anima," the owner of White Pine calmly mused. "One of the more powerful telekinetics among the Yizibajohei; people call her the 'Conductor of Matter' as her tag line. Fortunately, her past-selves usually acted in a more supportive role when it came to fight scenes, only using their Gifts offensively to defend themselves or others." Her expression became grim as her eyes turned down again to gaze upon the collection of Gift crystals.

 _I just hope that whoever has the other Gift crystals uses them wisely...!_

 _ **Fin...**_


	5. Crystal King, Wraith and Youngblood

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** ** _Copyright Act_** **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Crystal King, Wraith and Youngblood  
**_ by Regina Magia

* * *

 _ **Houston, the Pendulum Club, the Wednesday after Redet Lum's removal from Tomobiki, two hours before midnight (Tōkyō time: Thursday, an hour after lunch)...**_

"So that Mizunokōji woman's out of the picture, huh?!"

"Yeah," Alan Molnar said with a grin. "My parents have done business with a lot of rich folks from Japan, including both big families from Tomobiki." Snorting before sipping his drink, the young heir to Texas' largest construction firm then shook his head. "Let me tell you this, guys: The way Mom went on and on about that 'man-hating bitch' when she helped in the planning for the Mizunokōji Sportsland over in Baytown, you'd think she was the leader of a feminazi cult like the types Rush Limbaugh loves to complain about, not the chief executive officer of Japan's second biggest company!"

Skylar Eckles grinned as he sipped his own drink. While he and his friends were still minors by local law, they were able to get into the Pendulum without bothering with fake IDs; their mutual friend Rory Tillman — now seated beside Alan — was the owner's son. The three high school seniors often went out on the town to drink, party and get laid with college age girls who didn't mind having hot action with younger and more virile partners than the normal run of football jocks attending their places of study. Despite such a hedonistic lifestyle, they never did anything more illegal than underage drinking.

"These Yizibajohei sound awesome," Rory mused as he beckoned a nearby waitress over. "Sure, they don't use money there...but it sounds like they do alright without it. And those 'fight scenes' of theirs..." He shook his head before sipping the last of his drink. "Sounds like a worldwide 24/7 party to me!"

Alan and Skylar both whooped in agreement as the three men raised a toast with their drinks. "If you had the chance, would you become Yizibajohei?" the waitress — she was a pretty Asian girl with **LAURA YIN** on her name tag — then asked as she moved to clear the empty glasses.

"Hell, yeah!" Alan snorted.

"Damn straight I would!" Skylar agreed, toasting the air again with his shot glass.

"Ditto!" Rory declared before moving to get refills. "Anyhow, I'll have the Bloody Alabaster, Laura. Alan needs a piña colada and Skye wants a White Russian."

"And a slice of cheesecake each, please," Skylar then asked, raising a finger to make his point. "With whipped cream for everyone. Strawberry syrup on mine."

Laura smiled. "Alright! Be right back!"

* * *

 _ **Twelve hours later, somewhere...**_

"Oh, man...! My head...!"

Grunting, Skylar blinked as he sat up from the strange bed he just woke up in. Damn! He had experienced nasty hangovers before, but this took the cake...!

"Hey! This isn't my room!"

Hearing Alan's shout of disbelief, Skylar looked over...then gaped on seeing his best friend sit up in a bed similar to what he had just recovered in. A glance to his right revealed a moaning Rory slowly sliding up from under the covers of his own bed. Blinking, the young heir to the largest private family-held stock in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation and its namesake railroad then took a moment to scan around the room they were currently in. It was a hospital room of some sort, one far more advanced technologically than anything that any of the boys had ever visited in their lives, even with their families holding private insurance and their ability to access the most advanced hospital American medicine could offer. It was still a homely place, with wide windows opening out to show a very futuristic city that seemed to leap out of some science fiction movie...

"Habitation One...!" Rory whispered.

"What...?" Skylar began...then he blinked as images of this city replayed in his mind. Images that were quite unfamiliar to him, yet VERY familiar. As if he HAD lived here long before. "What the fuck...?!"

"What's wrong, man?!" Alan asked.

The young heir to a lot of BNSF Railway stock gaped as he looked at his friends. "We're on Yiziba, Al," he declared. "This is the man hospital in Habitation One..."

"The planetary capital city," Alan finished, his own eyes widening in shock on realizing what his friend was talking about. "Holy shit...!"

"Sorry about that, guys."

Heads snapped over. "Laura!" Rory called out...

...before his jaw dropped in shock on seeing one of his favourite waitresses now standing at the doorway, dressed in the familiar halter top jumpsuit design that had made an appearance on American national television thanks to President Josiah Bartlet revealing the existence of Terran-born Yizibajohei.

Which Laura Yīn — "Yīn Zhèngyáng" as she would be known back in her native Guǎngzhōu — obviously was given her current clothing.

" _ **Kimsyo'o**_...!" Skylar breathed out.

"I go by _**Tiānlóng**_ , actually," the waitress who was now the current incarnation of the Heavenly Dragon of the East stated as she walked in, turning on one foot to display the flame yellow jumpsuit with red boots and belt, the snarling green dragon-like animals rising up the outsides of her legs to form a curving "X" insignia over her cleavage. Taking that in, the three Houston natives remembered that Laura's first-self was the crown prince of the throne of one of the more despotic absolute monarchies on the eastern equatorial continent before the Dawn of Power; since that time, successive generations of the Heavenly Dragon varied between being a nasty heel and a vicious anti-face. "Sorry for the rushed Gifting, but we had no choice given it was either that or _**death**_!"

That sent chills down the three teenagers' backs. The concept of Gifting had been well-explained by the former governor of New Hampshire at that conference at the White House two days before they went to the Pendulum to party. "What happened, Laura?" Alan asked, trying not to shudder too much as heavy flashes of memories from many past lives appeared before his mind's eye.

The native of what was often called "Canton" in the West sighed. "Long story short, a few native Yizibajohei popped down to Houston for a visit. The stories of people like myself make a lot of the natives quite curious about how a planet full of 'norms' with hidden groups of 'sames' live like. Two came to the Pendulum last night. One was Sundown and the other was Trigger."

"Sundown's a face; independent from the city here," Rory noted as the memories of his past self — he now realized he was the current incarnation of the Passionate Fighter of the Zone, _**Koeke Riemim**_ (" _ **Youngblood**_ ") — came back to him. "Trigger's a heel from the southern continent; he loves to hang around the Battlezone picking fights all the time. My past-selves fought him a lot."

"I take it the tempers flew," Alan noted, shaking his head.

"They did!" Laura breathed out, rolling her eyes. "It was actually an innocent thing at the start. The girls in the club freaked on seeing two of us there in uniform, then crowded them both. After they got some drinks into them, Lum and Dusogum — Trigger and Sundown, by the way — decided to have a mini fight-scene to show off." She shook her head. "It got out of control; you know how stupid it is to fight when you're drunk. You guys got hit with some stray shots!"

Skylar moaned. "Must've gotten really hammered last night..." he muttered, placing a hand against the wall to steady himself...then he nearly fell over when his hand went straight _**through**_ it! " _ **HOLY...!**_ "

Alan chuckled. Even if they were in hospital gown-like clothing, the colours were clearly familiar. "Look what you're wearing, dude."

Skylar gaped before he straightened himself, then concentrated automatically to properly solidify himself so that he didn't wind up stuck in a wall. Gazing down to see the white gown with the neon green trim, he shook his head. " _ **Wraith**_...!" he breathed out in realization.

" _ **Yo'osyuo**_ ," Laura translated in Yizibajohei, acknowledging that the heir to a lot of BNSF stock was the current incarnation of the Stealthy Spirit. "It clear to you now, Alan?" she then asked the young construction firm heir.

"Yeah. _**Crystal King**_ ; _**Roer'buo Uo**_ here," Alan affirmed with a nod. His gown was a light blue overall with dark grey trim. He then smirked as he gestured with his hand, using his powers as the Princely Moulder of the Atom of Life to create a beautiful mesonium sceptre to hand over to his fellow "royal"; in his first life, Alan had been a young king in one of the constitutional monarchies in the central continent north of the modern-day Battlezone. "Your Majesty."

"Jerk!" the Heavenly Dragon groaned out...even if her cheeks were as red as cherries at that gift from the Princely Sculptor.

Skylar and Rory hooted their friend at such a slick move, then the latter got out of his bed and moved to stretch. With just a thought, he transformed his scarlet-and-purple gown into a proper fighting jumpsuit; the purple went into his boots and belt, not to mention the flame-like insignia in his chest. "How did that lead to us getting Gifted?" the son of the owner of the Pendulum asked.

"I remember a sharp pain in my side before I passed out," Alan mused before he shook his head. "At least I think I did...!"

"You all were in pretty bad shape," Laura admitted. "I figured that a quick dive in the Great Crystal would help you recover." She gave them a sheepish grin. "Tariko's going to give me hell for this. The current Dominatrix pulled a stunt like that last October when a friend of hers OD'd on crack."

"What did she become?" Skylar asked as he willed his gown into his own fighting jumpsuit, which was soft white overall with neon green belt, boots and a drifting cloud-like insignia on his chest. Seeing himself in a mirror, the new incarnation of the Stealthy Spirit smiled in approval at how good he looked.

"Manacle."

"Oh, fuck! It's _**Superfuzz**_! She's here to bust us!" Rory moaned.

The others laughed, making Laura shake her head as she hoped that comment about Regina Morrow didn't get to Molly Hecht's ears. The Mistress of Pain of Pleasure and one of the most powerful FISS-type Yizibajohei alive today, _**Kanae Matotukhebae**_ (the " _ **Dominatrix**_ "), was VERY overprotective of her girlfriend, the current incarnation of the Queen of Traps, _**Kiluo**_ (" _ **Manacle**_ "). If she heard that her boss' son said that, Molly would literally drag Rory into the Battlezone and beat him into a coma.

"Well, still, I AM sorry I didn't ask, but...!" the waitress flustered.

"Hey! What are you sorry for, Laura?!" Skylar's grin practically lit up the room. "We did say we'd get Gifted if we got a chance!" With that, he allowed gravity to fade as he rose into the air, moving to do a tight flip before flashing twin peace signs with his hands. " _ **TOTALLY WORTH IT!**_ " he whooped.

Rory laughed. "Amen to that, man!"

 _ **Fin...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTE** : The nickname used normally with **Manacle** ( **Regina Morrow** ) was first mentioned in _Manacled Dominatrix_.


	6. A Quiet Time in Delaware

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **A "Quiet" Time in Delaware  
**_ by Regina Magia

* * *

 _ **Outside Dover, the Friday before Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, late evening...**_

"Lord, I am troubled."

Kneeling before his family's home, Reverend David Maclay gazed up into the night sky. A young priest who was accredited with the United Methodist Church, he was the pastor of a local congregation living in or around the capital city of the First State. He had been honoured with a chance to attend a synod of the World Methodist Council at their headquarters in Lake Junaluska, located in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina, a month ago. That synod had also hosted representatives from other denominations the Council engaged in ecumenical dialogue with over the previous decades.

In that council, David had learned of something that had truly shocked him.

Something that hadn't haunted America for over fifty years.

But, thanks to the interest of aliens in this world, was coming back.

And coming back with a VENGEANCE...!

"Lord, I have heard much from those who tend to your flock about your children of Yiziba, our lost cousins taken from Your Creation all those years ago to reside on such a distant planet within Your Heavens. I do not know what to make of it, Lord. Those who also tend to your flock elsewhere do not understand them as well. Their ways are so strange to us, yet they have done much good since they came to reside here on Earth. There is such confusion in our hearts..."

A sigh escaped the native of Middletown before he fell silent, unsure of what to say next. Suddenly, a loud crashing noise echoed from nearby. Bolting to his feet, the preacher looked, then he raced over to where a rather large crater had formed in the backyard of his home, his hat left behind.

Now lying in that smoking crater where two men appearing to be in their twenties. Both were in form-fitting jumpsuits with flared sleeves and bell-bottom trousers, the garish colours of their clothes quite different than anything David considered "normal" fashion anywhere. The more muscular of the pair was clad in red and violets, an emblem resembling ten signal bars one would see on a smartphone screen put on their side, increasing in size from his waist to his collarbones. The other was in cyan blue, an emblem similar to an orb flying through the sky on his chest. Before the preacher could ask what was going on, the latter of the two somersaulted to his feet, revealing a devil-may-care smirk.

"«Give me those shards, Rimmim!»" he barked out in a language that sounded somewhat like Japanese to David's ears; many of his younger parishioners were passionate anime fans and he had seen several subtitled shows in the past on the Internet. "«I will not let those crystals fall into the wrong hands! If Tuyuki's plan is to succeed, this planet needs more faces than heels right now!»"

That made the more muscular fellow laugh as he also recovered by a simple body-flip back to his feet, playfully patting the small pouch tied to his belt. "«Do you think I'm going to let you tip the balance, Lu'unum?! I'd hardly think it fair if only FACES emerged from the norms of this planet! Things have to be properly even to prevent Batae Erba from returning, after all!»" And with that, he shot into the night sky overhead, a faint twinkle in the air marking his passage.

"«Coward! Get back here! I'm not done with you!»"

As the other man raced off after his opponent, David blinked as his mind nearly crashed from having such a close encounter of the third kind...

...then he blinked on seeing something flash in the ripped dirt where the current incarnation of the Mad Prophet of the Future, _**Rimmim**_ (" _ **Millennium**_ "), had stood. Curious, the preacher walked over to kneel at the edge of the crater, leaning down to pick up a shard of multi-layered crystal. "What is this...?"

He then gargled as the crystal glowed before MELTING into his skin...

* * *

 _ **An hour later...**_

"«...Botoemr'bu? Hey! You awake?!»"

Hearing that voice, David blinked as his mind quickly interpreted what he had just heard. "Yiziba..."

A relieved breath escaped his current guest., who was now hovering over the dazed priest. "«Thank the Forge! You got a decent Gift, one that won't give you too much in the way of that Post-Gifting Shock you Terran-borns always go through whenever Tuyuki or any of her friends visit you!»"

Hearing that — and INTERPRETING it — the Methodist preacher took a deep breath before he slowly sat up. A quick glance around revealed that he was in the living room of his house. A look outside into the backyard showed that the lawn was pristine. Noting that, he then winced as the memories came...

Memories of a simple preacher living on Yiziba's northern polar continent...

Memories of a time that made the prophecies of the Book of Revelations seem TAME in comparison.

Memories of when the preacher allowed the Great Forge of the First Race to bless him with the power that made him known throughout the two sagas of the Great Show of Life as the Guardian Shepherd of the North, _**Botoemr'bu**_ (" _ **Gospel**_ ")...

Memories of how said preacher had helped many monks and nuns get people clear of the insane battle zones rocking the urban centres of Yiziba as everything flew apart at the seams and the Starvation Times descended on that world...

Memories of how he had inspired three incredible scientists from Yiziba's most powerful democratic nation — the first incarnation of the _**R'beruo-tim**_ (the " _ **Circle of Thought**_ ") — to use their incredible Gifts to save a planet full of hungry people and bring forth a paradise.

How it had happened...

...and how it had FAILED so badly.

After all, even if one's basic needs for bread, water and shelter were met...

...it hadn't chased away the animal lusts still lurking in the hearts of those of the World of the Forge that had effectively guaranteed the Dawn of Power would erupt and transform the Yizibajohei into something truly extraordinary in the very first place.

Reflecting on that, he gazed up at the slender man who had brought him back inside after he had been Gifted. "Lu'unum?" he asked.

That made the dark-haired man smile in delight. "Not bad?" he asked in accented English, which made David think he was a native of Mississippi.

"Not as bad, I believe," the preacher confessed. The man before him was the current incarnation of the Speedy Flyer, _**Lu'unum**_ (" _ **Streak**_ "). A mid-level FISS-type with the ability to fly at near hyper-warp speeds in deep space, he was an independent who often teamed with many battle groups of "faces" to keep those who might try to force themselves upon defenceless norms on other planets from unleashing a multi-planet intergalactic war. "What was Rimmim doing?"

"He's upset that Tuyuki seems to be trying to bring only faces back as she, her sisters and those soul-split boy replica and girl replica of hers try to get people here Gifted," the man born Ha'aku Asim answered. "Leno — that's Rimmim's birth name, Leno Lu'umlo — feels it's not right for the faces to have all the 'fun', so he's taking Gift crystals he and his friends have found and are moving to spread them all over Earth." He shook his head. "It's pissing off Margo Black big time and giving Kasuga Ayumu a few headaches. Wouldn't surprise me if Margo forces his death scene..."

David nodded; he knew of the current incarnation of the Goddess Who Walks Among Men thanks to the Jesuits he had spoken to a month ago. "And Margo is...?"

"Litronie Erba."

That made the native of Middletown wince. "A heel?"

Ha'aku blinked, then shook his head. "Nah! She's downright sociable these days! More anti-face than anything else! She's working for your version of R'bosyuo here in this country as a special hit-girl. She got that religious goose-stepping heel that arranged for those towers in that big habitation to the northeast of here to be brought down by flying airships a few seasons back."

That made David's eyes widen. The Vatican's internal spy agency had sensed something like that had happened to Usāmah bin Lādin, but hadn't had proof; given the omniversal nature of the Yizibajohei, the Jesuits who attended the synod at Lake Junaluska had passed that on. "I will pray for her."

That made the Speedy Flyer gazed in concern at him. "You okay?"

The preacher blinked as he gazed down on his white jumpsuit with the golden shepherd's rod insignia on his chest, gold belt and boots; that was topped by a gold-trimmed red hooded cape. Grateful that he now possessed considerable empathic and touch-healing powers, the current incarnation of the Guardian Shepherd of the North could only smile at the incredible Gift — and yes, he was capitalizing that word as it had always been done on Yiziba — that the Lord had just handed him.

He had been a spiritual caretaker and therapist to his flock.

Now he could still be that...

...and do so much more.

"Thank you, Lord," he then whispered as he gazed on the image of the Savior hanging on one wall. "I understand Your message to me. I shall not fail."

"Amen."

Hearing that from Ha'aku, David smiled. "Tell me everything about what is happening back home," he bade as he waved his guest to his dining room...

* * *

 _ **Wilmington, near Brandywine Zoo, the Wednesday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, early evening...**_

"Alright...let's see what I got...!"

Megan Baynard grinned in anticipation as she pulled out the box she had just snatched from some passerby while trolling the downtown section of Delaware's largest city. She usually gave most of she got from her clients to her "boss" Larry Clayton. However, she often stole a few things from Larry — loose jewellery, sometimes a little extra cash or something else that might be interesting — for her own personal use. Whenever she had to deal with Larry, Megan's cut of whatever "prize" she often risked her neck and freedom to obtain was, in her humble opinion, always too small for her liking.

The previous evening, she noticed that the guy she had hooked up with when he had come to visit Larry at his apartment in the Hilltop section of town had been carrying around a small box, similar to what one might use to carry a wedding ring. Figuring he probably didn't deserve a wife if he was a frequent customer of Larry Clayton, Megan nabbed it just before she left to return back to her small flat across the Brandywine Creek near the zoo of the same name. There was no way the guy would report it stolen; he had known all along that the high school dropout was still well under eighteen years of age.

Once she was safe inside her apartment — which had been provided to her by Larry in one of the _**good**_ things he had ever done for her since she joined up with him two years ago — she sat down on her bed and opened the box. Inside, she was surprised to see a glittering multi-layered crystal with an outer skin of diamond around an inner sheath of ruby and an onyx black core within it. Blinking in curiosity — even if she wasn't experienced in jewellery, Megan was quick to realize this was no ordinary sparkler — she pulled it out to allow it to rest in her hand. _How much can I get out of this...?_ she wondered...

The memories hit her like a tidal wave. Memories of a world that had burned like nothing no one on Earth could ever have imagined. Memories of people — sometimes women, sometimes men — who suffered like she had; Megan's father had lost his job in the stock market crash of a few years before, driving him to drink and making the young girl flee from home when his abuse grew too much. Thinking on that, she experienced the memories of the first of twenty-six people the crystal now melting into her body and radiating her with huge amounts of mesonium experienced. How a woman from a place that made Nazi Germany look like a garden tea party discovered the means to conceal herself with the power of her mind, making her invisible to most anyone, especially the goose-steppers who were trying to keep order in a time when the concept was seen as the worst evil. How said woman developed a powerful form of clairvoyance that allowed her to "see" through almost everything she confronted.

The memories of that woman who became the Spectral Observer.

 _ **Nesu...TIMR'BUO!**_

As the voice of the Herald of the Great Crystal of Power echoed through the room, the newest incarnation of _**Timr'buo**_ (" _ **Witness**_ ") gasped as she looked down at herself. Her street clothes had vanished, being replaced by the super-cool jumpsuit design those radical Yizibajohei had worn at that press conference at the White House on Sunday, which showed off her growing body very well. Now she was draped in a dark grey jumpsuit with black belt and boots, an eye of God-like insignia over her cleavage. Relaxing herself as she felt the storm of knowledge and experience that came with the Gifting settle into her mind, the newest version of the Spectral Observer took a deep breath.

 _Damn! That was fucking PRICELESS!_

With that, she sat on the bed, grateful people in neighbouring apartments were out so they wouldn't complain about hearing the Conservator's voice boom over the scene as the Gifting came to her...

* * *

 _ **Very early on Thursday morning...**_

"Hey, Taree! Wake up!"

The tattooed teenager in the bed in another part of the apartment block Megan lived in stirred, looking around. "Meg...?" Taree Printz moaned out. "Wha' th' fuck's goin' on, girl...? Not even light 'side..."

"I know," Megan's voice echoed out of the very air around him, making him blink as he tried to see where she was standing. "That's why we gotta go NOW, boy! Cops are on their way!"

That did it! "The COPS?!" Taree yelped as he jolted upright. Like Megan, Taree had been the child of a victim of the great recession that had hit America's banking sector a few years ago. He had also been brought into Larry Clayton's "employ" to troll the streets of Wilmington and even go as far north as Philadelphia to get interesting things by whatever means possible to be pawned off. "Aw, shit! What are we gonna do, Meg?! If Larry's gettin' arrested...!"

"Relax," Megan said reassuringly as she allowed herself to appear before him, making him gape in shock at such an act. "I've found a better career for us." Taking a moment to pose herself in front of him — Megan and Taree had been "friends with benefits" for about a year now — she added, "'Sides, Larry deserves what he's getting. None of us have hit eighteen yet! He ain't gettin' outta prison, 'specially since the cops have plenty of evidence against him. Let's go!"

"Holy shit..." he breathed out on seeing that cut of jumpsuit. After seeing that cute "shipgirl" who visited the White House on Sunday at that big press conference where the existence of Terran-born Yizibajohei went public, Taree actually had a dream about seeing his lover dressed that way.

Getting up, he walked over to gently embrace the Spectral Observer, allowing his rigid manhood to rest in the crevice of her well-formed buttocks, sending a shiver down her whole body. "Damn! Did I ever tell you how hot you are at times, Megan?" he purred into her ear.

Before they could enjoy a pleasant kiss, a flash of energy allowed a device shaped like a paperback novel to appear on the small dresser in front of Megan. Looking at it, she grinned on seeing that it was the most handy thing the first Academician had ever made for the residents of Yiziba. "Cool!" she said with a grin as she grabbed the PAA and allowed it to scan her upgraded DNA.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Our ticket to a way better place than this, Taree! Hang on tight!"

And in a flash of energy, both teleported away from Earth...

* * *

 _ **Wilmington Hospital, after breakfast...**_

"Hey, sis! I gotcha another Beanie Baby on my way here."

Chelsea Miller gave her brother a smile as she took the stuffed animal. The nurses had just taken her tray of liquid food away. "Thanks, Corey," the bald leukemia patient moaned as she hugged the Beanie Baby with what little power she had left. "Kinda wish I could take my collection with me when I go..."

Hearing that made her brother tense. While he was personally grateful that their parents had been able to keep their jobs at the Bank of America's offices on Kennett Pike northwest of downtown — which guaranteed they'd still be covered by the company's sponsored health insurance plan — there were things that still couldn't be beaten. "Don't talk like that!" he snapped before pausing to catch his breath. Damn! He had to do something about overreacting to what was happening to Chelsea. "You're gonna beat this," he then said in a more conciliatory tone. "One way or another, you're beating this!"

She gave him a weak smile. "The doctors say it's bad. Chemo seems less and less likely to work." Her eyes then teared as she reached over to grasp his hand in reassurance. "Face it, bro...I'm done for."

"NO!" Corey snapped as he reached over to grip her shoulders. "I am NOT going to let you die, Chelsea! It AIN'T gonna happen, okay?!"

She gaped at him before giving him a smile, leaning over to kiss his forehead. Feeling that made him blink before he pulled his hands back, moving to sit down on the chair next to her bed; given the nature of Chelsea's illness, she had been given a private room. Burying his face in his hands, he tried not to sob at the idea of being forced to bury his own sister so soon in life.

Why...?

Why was Fate so cruel to do THIS to her...?

Why...?

As she remained silent — they had been through many scenes like this over the last six months since Chelsea had been admitted into intensive care — he took a deep breath as the idea that had been percolating in the back of his mind since that announcement on Sunday from the White House made him remember an interesting conversation with one of his classmates at the campus of the University of Delaware near where the Miller family resided. A woman who was WAY more than a political science freshman who had been personally recommended to attend the school by none other than Josh Lyman, deputy chief of staff to President Josiah Bartlet himself.

Remembering the concepts that had been dropped down on her head by Samantha Applegate — whom Corey definitely saw as potential girlfriend material if a certain concept that was quite alien even for Terrans or their blood relatives on the World of the Forge didn't come into play — he took a deep breath. "Chel, what if there was another way?" he quietly asked, making her stare at him with concern; hearing such a serious tone of voice from him always creeped her out. "What if there's a way to get rid of the leukemia AND become WAY better than what you are now?" He gave her an intensive look.

"Okay! You are SERIOUSLY creeping me out...!"

"Sam's a Yizibajohei."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

" _ **WHAT?!**_ "

Corey smirked. "Shortly after I met Sam when she began attending classes at the university, she told me something that will scare you silly..."

* * *

 _ **The Bethany Beach Training Site (sixty miles east of south from Wilmington), after nightfall...**_

"See! I told you you'd be okay!"

"Catch me if you can, bro!"

"I'm gonna get you!"

Watching the siblings soar around over the main training area of the Delaware Army National Guard near the border with Maryland, Doctor John Milford could only nod in delight. Much that he had high hopes in dealing with Chelsea Miller's illness when she had been admitted half a year ago, the specific nature of her leukemia soon drove the young oncologist to despair. Seeing someone die THAT young...

"Good work, Doctor."

Hearing that teasing voice from the member of the _**Kimr'be Domgam**_ (the " _ **Angel Corps**_ ") who had come at Corey's request to help Gift his sister, the native of Dover could only smile. "Miss Applegate, I hardly did anything. I was worried about what inducing all that mesonium into Miss Miller's body would do to her, but given how mesonium often helps people recover from radiation poisoning..."

Hearing that, the native of Brooklyn smiled. While having not felt the "time of the month" — as her sister Terrans-turned-Avalonians called the sudden and unexpected coming of the mad urge to forge a marei'cha bond with a potential life-partner — when she had first met Corey Miller in September, the current incarnation of the True Noble of the Centre, _**Tuor'bo**_ (" _ **Princess**_ "), definitely saw the native of Wilmington as potential surei'cha material. It hadn't taken her long to convince him to take a Gift himself, allowing him to become the current incarnation of the Cheerful Assassin, _**R'betato**_ (" _ **Bravo**_ "); that Gift gave the bankers' son mid-range FISS powers and the experience of a master assassin from the western equatorial continent of Yiziba who had turned his back on his dictator and struck out on his own, hovering from being a nominal heel to a harsh anti-face depending on his incarnation. Much that having Margo Black at his personal beck and call whenever someone of that power was needed to deal with something nasty made the President's life easier, it was always wise to stack one's deck with ace chips to make sure that if a power play was needed, America would win in the long term.

And while it did bother the Terran-turned-Avalonian-turned-Yizibajohei university freshman that the hidden "metahuman race" that was now starting among the nations of Earth was an ominous replay of what had led to the Dawn of Power on Yiziba two sagas ago, Samantha couldn't ignore what giving the Gift of the Night Warrior, _**Dakeroe**_ (" _ **Moonrise**_ "), had done to her boyfriend's sister.

 _It will all work out...!_ the current incarnation of the True Noble mused...

 ** _In the sky overhead..._**

 _Just like old times_ , Corey mused to himself as he looped over the lower reaches of Delaware Bay, keeping an eye on his sister as she exercised her own powers and moved to bleed off the considerable Post-Gifting Shock she was now experiencing.

The bankers' son hadn't been really surprised that Chelsea had become something like Moonrise; she had always been something of a night owl. Fortunately, she was one of those people who didn't need as much sleep as others even if she tried to get the necessary amount of shut-eye needed to stay awake in classes; when she started having bouts of tiredness as she was going through her sophomore year of high school, Corey and his parents realized right away that something was wrong.

Much that he was more than grateful to Samantha for introducing the subject of being Gifted as a way of saving Chelsea's life — the ability to become an Avalonian was something President Bartlet wanted to keep top secret until such time as the current xenophobia that had launched an anti-alien rave after the revelations of that bomb were made on Friday — Corey had to admit that seeing his sister become the Night Warrior THIS way was a relief; on hearing that her leukemia had taken a massive turn for the worse, he had been tempted to sneak her out of the hospital and get her to the Cave of the Future right away. This way, Chelsea would get her life back, gain an exciting career as an undercover metahuman operative answerable to the American government and be able to finish high school.

And he would watch over her all the way.

He was her big brother.

He would be there when she needed it.

No matter what.

 _ **Fin...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

As a reminder, _**R'bosyuo**_ (" _ **Lider**_ ") was first noted on in Part Six of the main story; she is **Aruka Damasu** , the Avalonian clone replica of Aruka Ran who was first introduced in _The Senior Year_ story "What Price For Love?" **Samantha Applegate** will appear in a future omake.


	7. Operetta & Stereo Embark on an Adventure

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Operetta and Stereo Embark On An Adventure  
**_ by Regina Magia

* * *

 _ **Everton in Liverpool, a Friday afternoon a month before Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth...**_

"Ugh! Do you believe that outfit?!"

"It's so tacky, I can't look at it!"

Bonnie Anderson shook her head as she walked away from the two popular girls in her class at the North Liverpool Academy, letting their mocking flow off her like rainwater. So what if they didn't appreciate her love of punk and rock music? So what if the teachers gave her detention for wearing earrings and baring her midriff?! So what if she was seen as a social pariah at school...!

Bonnie herself was Gifted with the power of the Sonic Valkyrie, _**Sekokaer'buo**_ (" _ **Stereo**_ "), thus no longer had any reason to reside in Merseyside, much less on Earth itself. The only reason she had come today was to pick up Milo Farrell, a fellow Terran-turned-Yizibajohei she recently befriended. He — who was now the current incarnation of the Master of Happy Tones, _**Tyuotadite**_ (" _ **Operetta**_ ") — was as much a rock fan as she; he had introduced her to the joys of folk and glam music. She reciprocated by introducing the Jamaican-Briton to bands like Bon Jovi, AC/DC and similar groups. As a result, he had become her only friend at this school full of what definitely were the textbook definition of "umale".

So when she had been Gifted, Bonnie invited Milo along for the ride.

Spotting him by the door to Room 123, she ran over. "Hey! Ready to go?!"

"Yep!" he replied as he hoisted his backpack onto his bag, moving to follow her out of the school. "You bring your music...?"

* * *

 _ **The southern polar continent of Yiziba, a day later...**_

"Okay, let's recap the script..."

Now clad in their jumpsuits, Milo and Bonnie sat across from two natives who asked the Liverpudlians for help in their pending fight scene campaign. The blonde fair-skinned woman with a wild hairstyle was the current incarnation of the Mistress of Barriers, _**Tyuoduto**_ (" _ **Impasse**_ "). Born on the southern polar continent as Rokibame'e La'anomug'ga, the would-be glam rock singer met Milo and Bonnie two years ago, shortly after both were Gifted. Her companion, who resembled an African-American linebacker for a gridiron team playing for the NFL, was the current incarnation of the Slick Morpher, _**Dimkuo**_ (" _ **Slideshow**_ "), which made him a master allasomorph. Born on the southern shores of the central equatorial continent, Ieguseam We'eka'arum befriended Rokibame'e shortly after both had been Gifted themselves while still kids; they had formed a battle group partnership and had taken on all comers since that time.

"The planet that's earned the interest of a lot of people here is Prueki," Rokibame'e explained. "It's located beyond the outspin edge of Yehisrite space. According to what Daturie and Kikhodato both discovered thanks to their videocams-in-the-stars, the people of this world are due for their own Dawn of Power within the next series." As both Terran-borns nodded in understanding, the Mistress of Barriers added, "There's no Great Crystal of Power on the planet and the mesonium content in the biosphere's nothing to write a script on. Still, occurrences of metahuman abilities beyond any mastery of background lomtumsam has started to crop up and the norms are taking notice; it's not so different than what was happening on Earth before your second worldwide fight scene six mini-series ago."

"Mystery men," Bonnie mused.

"As your people called it," Ieguseam affirmed with a nod, crossing his arms. "Given what all our first-selves went through during the Dawn of Power, many people here on Yiziba believe the humane thing to do is to go to Prueki and help the locals there adjust to what's happening around them. If we do that, we can help them avoid things like the Starvation Times. Not to mention some of the umale leaders on Yehisril looking their way in case things go insane."

The Liverpudlian teenagers smirked. While relations between the Free Planetary State of Yiziba and the Royal Kingdoms of Yehisril — one of the four large local galactic powers within close reach of the World of the Forge — were peaceful, the attitudes of the latter race when it came to trying to understand what drove the former pretty much could be summed up by a glance at the character of Obelix from any _Asterix_ comic from Belgium whenever the menhir deliveryman confronted something that just didn't make sense. And while most of the ruling crown princes of that vast swath of territory weren't really interested in expanding their domains into other races' territories, there were the troublemakers like the current ruler of Kyotos, Prince Sheko; all one had to do was check out what was REALLY going on with Tariko Katabarbe's other would-be "wife" to see why. "Well, no sense in those casting rejects from _Star Trek_ trying to butt into this," Milo noted. "Any possible opposition, Roki?"

"One group," Rokibame'e warned. "The natives of that world are under the control of a being named Jikan. He's a Daevan. Similar to the Goa'uld: A parasitical race of insects that love to possess host bodies since they're so small in natural form, they're helpless against any potential predator. There are a whole swarm of Daevans on Prueki now. Unlike our would-be echo voice-overs from that swamp planet the Unas come from, the Daevans are interested in maintaining 'order' on those planets they take interest in." As her childhood friend and the two Terran-borns scowled on hearing the sneer in Rokibame'e's voice when she said that word, she shook her head, "Damned homr'bu umale!"

"So we go find this rebel group you told us about who know the truth of this Jikan bitch, unleash a fight scene on her arse to knock her off her stolen throne, right?" Bonnie asked, then she nodded as she sat back in her chair, swinging her legs in contemplation. "Damn! Never thought I'd finally get out of that arse-wipe of a school, to say anything of going to visit other bloody _**planets**_!" She and her friend shared a knowing look. "Getting 'superpowers' and fighting alien control freaks just puts icing on the cake!"

"Hell, if we get to introduce them to rock music, so much the better," Milo added, causing a round of laughter from the others in the room...

 _ **Fin...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

Some Yizibajohei social terms introduced here:

 **Recap the script** — To review a meeting or briefing.

 **Videocams-in-the-stars** — Multimedia sensor probes that can scan anything, usually always found in high orbit over a planet.

 **Nothing to write a script on** — Same as the Terran "Nothing to write home about".

 **Second worldwide fight scene** — The Second World War.

 **Would-be echo voice-overs** — Anyone who speaks with an echo in their voice to sound imperious or god-like.

A couple translations: **Lomtumsam** — Literally "pure chaos", the Yizibajohei euphemism for magic; **Homr'bu umale** — Literally "scripted same", this is used for a group of people who behave exactly according to a set of rules with no deviation, as if they were following the instructions in a drill manual.

 _ **Daturie**_ (the _**Academician**_ ) and _**Kikhodato**_ (the _**Philosopher**_ ), by the way, are **Elizabeth Wakefield** (from _Sweet Valley High_ ) and **Tánja Chapáeva** (one of Fred's original characters).

The concept of **Outspin** implies travelling in the opposite direction parallel to the central axis of a spiral arm within a galaxy away from the galactic core. The opposite direction would be **Inspin**. Going directly towards the centre of the galaxy is **Coreward** , while moving away is **Spinward**.

Also, for those who don't know the _Asterix_ comics created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in the 1950s, **Obelix** is a magically-altered Gaul warrior who is blessed with super-strength, super-speed and some forms of invulnerability. Whenever he confronted something he thought was insane, he would tap the side of his head with his index finger multiple times and say "(subject) is crazy!" That's how many **Yehisrites** (first introduced in the _TSY_ story "Ancient Ties") view Yizibajohei; yes, the warriors of Yehisril admire the metahumans of Yiziba for their passion in battle...but in the eyes of any Yehisrite, Yizibajohei seem to fight for NOTHING AT ALL, which doesn't make sense to any of the former race.


	8. The Daring Escape of Quarz and Flipper

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **The Daring Escape of Quarz and Flipper  
**_ by Regina Magia

Including characters and situations from _Mai_ , created by Kudō Kazuya and Ikegami Ryōichi.

* * *

 _ **Schloss Dietram (twenty kilometres south of München), the Wednesday before Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, two hours before midnight (Tōkyō time: Thursday morning, just before dawn)...**_

"I'm scared, Sigrid..."

Sigrid Wille pulled her friend Axel Webber close, hugging the pre-teen native of the borough of Bogenhausen, one of the districts of Bavaria's largest city located to the east of the River Isar beyond the borders of the famous Englischer Garten. "I know, Axel," the young teen from Berg am Laim south of Bogenhausen whispered in reassurance. "I'm scared, too. We're going to get out of this..."

After giving the younger boy a reassuring squeeze of her arms, the blonde, blue-eyed daughter of a senior executive in BMW stood and walked over to the window of the old nobleman's hunting mansion located in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, overlooking the glittering sea of the Munich night sky. Sigrid and Axel — the latter was the son of the Christlich-Soziale Union representative for the federal electoral district of München-Ost — had both been kidnapped when they were playing in the Garten. Personnel of the Bundespolizei that had been assigned to watch over the paid had been effectively knocked out by the masked kidnappers using stun grenades before any of the policemen could get off warning shots. Despite the fact that the group that had dragged the two children to Schloss Dietram had been quite kind in dealing with the children, neither knew what this was about.

Looking down at her hands, Sigrid then smiled as the silvery glow indicating that the mesonium recently injected into her veins was now once more linking to the Seeker's Forge hundreds of light-years away. She had encountered a local-born rekrutierungsagent of the Children of the Forge a week ago. Said woman was one who gained her own Gift thanks to Tariko Katabarbe six years ago; these days, Annalise Garten of Leipzig was the current incarnation of the Silent Killer of the Mind, _**Dum Gamdam**_ (" _ **Seelenkugel**_ "). During that time, the automotive executive's daughter got the chance to try a local variant of Tariko's "pre-Gifting" black forest cake. In the days that followed, Sigrid's mind had been exposed to memories preserved by dozens of possible Gifts spanning several power set categories. Each time, Sigrid didn't find the right thing that would chime right with her innermost heart. And now...

Now...

Another Gift was starting to flood her mind with memories...

...and this one might be the trick they needed to...!

"Sigrid! Why are we _**glowing**_?!"

Gasping, Sigrid spun around to stare at her wide-eyed — and yes, brightly glowing — younger friend. She then gulped as a voice echoed around her...

 _ **Tene lomher'buo,**_ _ **Sigrid Wille...**_

"Axel! Go over there!" she then bade, pointing to one corner of the room. As the bewildered dietman's son — who had been there at the Garten when Sigrid had met Annalise, thus got a chance to sample the Leipziger's cake — moved to stand in the corner, she then reached for her shirt. "Cover your eyes!"

Nodding rapidly, he slapped his eyes closed as she pulled off her blouse...

* * *

 _ **Nesu...RITEIE!**_

Hearing that booming voice echo all around them, the former soldiers — they had been playing cards as they waited for their employers to decide what to finally do with the two children they had just retrieved from the Englischer Garten hours before — all looked around in confusion. The leader of the group then looked over. "Olaf! Go check on those kids!" he barked out.

One of the people standing guard by the door to the reception hall nodded before he raced out of the room and down a hallway to the guest quarters where Sigrid Wille and Axel Webber had been secured. Before he could snap open the door to let him look inside, a slender hand sheathed in glittering diamond-like crystal slammed into his chest, sending the poor mercenary flying across the hall to collide back-first into a brick stanchion, knocking him out.

Stepping out of the room, a glittering human-shaped entity looked around before the crystalline "skin" melted away back into Sigrid's normal tones, she now covered in a pale purple jumpsuit topped with silver belt and boots, a silver cut diamond insignia over her teenage cleavage. "Axel!" she called back into the room. "Stay there until you feel the Gift take you! Remember what I said about your clothes!"

She then turned as Olaf wheeled back to his feet, snap-drawing his pistol. Just as he took aim and fired, her body transformed again, guaranteeing that whatever shells that would have either blown her brains out or destroyed her shoulders smashed into a surface harder than diamond, the warped cases of copper-jacketed lead dropping to the floor. Before the mercenary could move to back clear of her, the automotive executive's daughter snared his weapon by the hand, crushing it with ease.

"Now, what's going on...?!" she began...

...before the door to the reception room opened, allowing two other mercenaries to gaze out before they stopped, eyes popping out of their heads on seeing an honest-to-goodness _**metahuman**_ standing there now confronting their friend. " _ **SCHIESSE!**_ " Sigrid barked out as one spun to run back into the room...

 _ **Nesu...GAMDO!**_

Hearing that announcement from the Conservator, the current incarnation of the Glittering Knight, _**Riteie**_ (" _ **Quarz**_ "), grinned as she recalled that one of her past selves had spent time with a past incarnation of the Unstoppable Bouncer, _**Gamdo**_ (" _ **Flipper**_ "). From what Sigrid could recall, Flipper had the ability to create a kinetic field around his body that would allow him to bounce off objects at the same speed he struck it, plus repel any form of physical attack — fists, blades, bullets and the like — without harm. He could also extend this field to those he was in contact with; this made him a popular partner with other metahumans whenever they needed such protection during hectic fight scenes.

" _ **INCOMING!**_ "

The new incarnation of the Glittering Knight deftly moved aside as her friend literally bounced off a wall after vaulting himself out of the room, rebounding off various hard surfaces along the hallway walls to bowl into the mercenaries that had been facing Sigrid down. One of them was quick to recover and moved to flee, but the automotive executive's daughter was just as quick in lunging over and snaring him, using her strength to slam him against a wall while cocking her free hand back.

"Who hired you to kidnap us?!" Sigrid demanded.

The mercenary was trying not to soil his pants. "It was just you!" he cried out. "We only took your friend because we didn't want him telling the authorities!"

" _ **WHO?!**_ "

A diamond-hard fist slammed into the wall beside him, leaving beside a very large hole in the brick and mortar. Seeing that, the mercenary gulped...

* * *

 _ **Berg am Laim in München, the Wille residence, Thursday after lunch...**_

" _...in other news, local entrepreneur Fritz Wikstrom has been arrested. Police informed BF News that Wikstrom was attempting to wrest control of the company he worked as vice president for..._ "

As the local broadcast of the Bayerisches Fernsehen played in the background, Sigrid's father Tomas shook his head. "All these years, I trusted that man!" the executive hissed out. "To think he would go so far as to kidnap my daughter, never mind abducting Axel just because he was in the wrong place...!"

Trying not to blush at his father's rant, the new incarnation of the Glittering Knight then winced as his mother Elisabet embraced her. "I'm so glad you're alright, mein Schatz...!" the part-time nurse sobbed.

"Mutti!" the younger girl moaned, trying not to give into the urge to push her clueless mother away from her. "I'm alright! Calm down!"

Watching this from nearby, Axel tried not to grin. "Can we go play basketball?"

Hearing that made his friend smirk. Despite getting the chance to get some exercise hours earlier, it was clearly obvious that the politician's son still needed to work off some Post-Gifting Shock.

"Sure..."

 _ **Fin...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

Translation list: **Schloss** — Unfortified castle/nobleman's home; **Englischer Garten** — English Garden, one of Munich's most popular city parks; **Christlich-Soziale Union** — Christian Socialist Union, Bavaria's conservative Christian democratic party, the Free State's internal version of the national **Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands** ("Christian Democratic Union of Germany"); **München-Ost** — East Munich; **Bundespolizei** — Federal Police Service, Germany's national law enforcement agency; **Seelenkugel** — Soul Bullet; **Tene lomher'buo** — You are ready; **Schiesse!** — Shit!; **Quarz** — Quartz; **Flipper** — Pinball; **Bayerisches Fernsehen** — Bavarian Television, the local equivalent of PBS in the United States; **Mein Schatz** — My Dearest (term of endearment from a mother to a child); **Mutti** — Mummy.

 **Annalise Garten** is a character from the manga series _Mai_ (AKA _Mai the Psychic Girl_ ), one of the first series translated by Viz Media in America. In that series, she is known as "Turm Garten", but since the given name is the German word for "tower", Fred gave this character a more proper lady's name.


	9. Otohime's New Mother

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _**Otohime's New Mother  
**_ by Regina Magia

* * *

 _ **Port Orchard in Washington (twenty kilometres west of southeast from Seattle), one Friday in early fall after the Mother of All Fight Scenes over Phentax Twelve, after nightfall...**_

Sitting by the bedside, the current incarnation of the Soul Hunter of the North, _**Uotum Yuoti**_ (" _ **Twilight Spirit**_ "), gently stroked the long black hair of the sleeping pre-teen now tucked under the covers of her old bed. It hadn't been easy for the woman born Liim Ta on Yiziba's northern continent to trace down the ghost of Samara Morgan despite the number of videotapes that had been bound to the child's soul. Fortunately, Liim had been able to remove the curse energy that bound several victims who had been targeted by Samara to her, then got the poor people to hand the tapes over. Drawing out the energy from those storage devices, she was able to lure in the vengeful ghost back to her home and trap her in a soul crystal, which she then placed into a battle doll body that Kasuga Ayumu had been more than pleased to prepare for this particular instance.

The twenty-something eldest daughter of a couple among the Nameless from the village near where Tariko Katabarbe lived who had become the current incarnation of a military nurse from the days of the Dawn of Power had learned about Samara from Rachel Keller, a newspaper reporter for _The Seattle Times_ who had almost been killed by the curse. After hearing the child's tale from the other woman, the Soul Hunter of the North decided right then and there that someone who had suffered the way Samara had didn't deserve to face the likes of _**Margo Black**_ no matter how much suffering she had inflicted...

"Mommy...?"

Samara had just woke up; she was looking at Liim in confusion. The Yizibajohei started on hearing that before she recalled her resemblance to Samara's foster mother Anna, the child's first victim all those years ago; the Morgan house located on a bluff overlooking Sinclair Inlet and the waterfront of Naval Base Kitsap had been abandoned three decades ago even if local pits of lomtumsam kept it intact all this time. "No, child," the current incarnation of the Northern Soul Hunter said with a calm tone as she squeezed the younger girl's shoulder. "I'm not her." A wry look then crossed her face. "Besides, she wasn't really much of a mother to you. Throwing you into that well...?!" She shook her head. "How could she do such a horrible thing...?"

Samara's eyes were as wide as saucers. "H-how do you...?!" she sputtered. "I never...!"

"I heard about your tape from Rachel Keller," Liim explained as she gave Samara a knowing look. "I assume you remember her?" Getting a wary nod from Samara, the Soul Hunter continued, "In my first life, I took care of people who were very sick. Many died." Quietly thanking the Fates that her many encounters with Tariko had taught her how to use local Terran terms than Yizibajohei equivalents, the reborn military nurse sighed. "It broke my heart, especially when they were young. Seeing children die before their time...it just wasn't fair." She took a deep breath before gazing once more at the reborn child. "That's why I work with those like you, frozen between life and death. To ease their pain and help them find peace."

As Samara felt her eyes tear, Liim then leaned over to gently kiss the child's forehead, making the younger girl blush. "Sometimes, however...I find someone who needs a second chance more than they need to move on.

"Like you..."

* * *

 _ **Yiziba, near Habitation One, a day later...**_

 _ **Nesu...UKOTE!**_

Liim smiled as the transformed Samara stepped out of the Great Crystal of Power, draped now in the dark sea blue uniform with the black trim of the Ocean Princess, _**Ukote**_ (" _ **Otohime**_ "). As the newly-Gifted and battle doll-augmented hydrokinetic stopped to allow the memories of her past-selves to settle in her mind, the reborn nurse-turned-medium approached her with open arms. "You've been through so much..." she said, kneeling to embrace the Washingtonian. "It may pale in comparison to the suffering endured at the Dawn of Power...but you didn't deserve to be betrayed by the one person you loved."

"All she ever wanted was me," Samara whispered. "She said so just before she...before she killed me..."

"And all you wanted a mother," Liim observed. "Anna wasn't a good mother. Not the mother you should have had...

"And that you _**will**_ have."

Hearing that, Samara perked before a smile crossed her face.

Now she knew everything would be okay...

* * *

 _ **Back in Washington, the Sunday a week after, early afternoon...**_

Samara — now calling herself "Carrie Denny" in tribute to the man who had led the first white settlers into Puget Sound in 1851 — smiled as she and Liim stepped off the bus. They had just teleported themselves back to Port Orchid after spending a day on the shores of the Ring Ocean that surrounded Yiziba's northern polar continent. It wasn't the Battlezone by any stretch of the imagination, but the Northern Soul Hunter felt it was a much better way to help the reborn Washingtonian get over her Post-Gifting Shock when she wasn't being made to fight with some loon FISS-type on the central equatorial continent.

Grateful to the very pleasant normal-born aurors working for the Washington state branch of the American Department of Magic for helping Samara/Carrie get a new identity and making her the heir of the Morgan family of Port Orchid (with help from those rather cute sames calling themselves "kobaloi" as a race), the adopted mother and daughter decided to spend a day exploring the largest city in the Pacific Northwest. Already, Carrie had been taken away by things like the Space Needle. Tonight, they would attend a performance of _The South of Music_ at the historic 5th Avenue Theatre.

But now, it was time for lunch.

Stepping into Hanamasu — it had been recommended to Liim by Tariko thanks to a prior visit to the Emerald City three years ago by the current incarnation of the Trickster of the Show — the native-born Yizibajohei and her Terran-born adopted daughter were immediately greeted by the maître d'hôtel, who had an apologetic look on his face. "Forgive me, madame," he said with a polite bow. "We don't have any open tables at this time. They're all taken or reserved."

"Could we sit at the bar?" Liim then asked as she indicated the empty chairs near the bar. "I just got finished with adopting my child here and we're famished. My friend Tariko Katabarbe recommended this restaurant."

That made the older man gape before he nodded in understanding. "Miss Katabarbe?! Of course, miss! Come this way!"

Liim grasped Carrie's hand as they made their way over. The bar had been a recent addition to the Japanese-theme steakhouse given how popular it had become over the years with the crowd from Seattle University and Seattle Central College, both of whom had campuses within easy walking distance of downtown. Much to the surprise and delight of the nurse-turned-medium, a familiar woman was relaxing beside a boy about a year older than Liim's adopted daughter. "Ah! Rachel!" she called out, making the newspaper reporter look over. "Fancy seeing you here."

Confusion crossed Rachel Keller's face. "Excuse me? Do I know you?"

Liim smiled as Carrie sat down next to the reporter's young companion. "We ran into each other a while ago," the Yizibajohei stated. "You were at the funeral of your...?" Confusion then crossed her face. "Your husband? Your boyfriend...?"

As the Seattle native's eyes widened in surprise and faint recognition, Carrie reached over to pull a menu closer to her, tuning out the grown-ups as she scanned what was being offered. After a moment, she gazed on the boy beside her, instantly recognizing him as Aidan Anderson, the child of one of the people she had "latched" onto during the years she had been effectively bodyless. "Hey!" she hissed, making him look her way. "What do you think I should have?"

The blond boy, who appeared to be a year older than Carrie, shrugged. "What do you like? Rice? Sushi? Steak? Shrimp?"

A cute scowl crossed her face. "I dunno. I've never tried any of these before."

"Go with steak," he said. "The ones here are pretty good."

"Thanks. I'm Carrie."

"Aidan."

 _ **Fin...**_


	10. The Visions of Stargazer

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **The Visions of Stargazer  
**_ by Regina Magia

Including characters and situations from _Digimon_ , created by Bandai, WiZ and Toei Animation; _Shin Megami Tensei: Persona_ , created by Okada Kōji; _Divergent_ , written by Veronica Roth; _Danganronpa_ , developed by Spike Chunsoft; _Pokemon_ , created by Tajiri Satoshi; _Y_ _ū-Gi-Ō!_ , created by Takahashi Kazuki; _Battle Royale_ , written by Takami Kōshun; and _Rockman EXE_ , written by Takamisaki Ryō.

* * *

 _Leaping over a fallen tree, Asima ran over to where Shira lay...only to see her sister was already sitting up. "Shira! Are you all right?!" the fate-touched asked worriedly._

 _"Yes!" Shira said, looking down at herself in surprise. "I...I'm not hurt at all...!"_

* * *

 _ **Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, in a café on Coney Island Avenue, the Monday before Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, early afternoon...**_

Pausing to take a sip from his can of Coke, Il'já Fájnzil'berg carefully scanned over the rough draft for the newest chapter of his latest book. The Russian-Ukrainian immigrant — who had moved to this part of the Big Apple with his parents and younger siblings two decades ago — discovered a passion for writing when he finally came to the New World. Though he'd never truly been lacking in ideas, becoming Gifted had really gotten his creative juices flowing.

As the current incarnation of the All-Seer of the Universe, _**R'bekodyuor'ba**_ (" _ **Stargazer**_ "), the former native of Odésa in modern-day Ukraine possessed cosmic levels of clairvoyance. This enabled him to see anywhere he desired, no matter of such was in this very universe, any alternate timeline or any alternate dimension. Some of the alternate timelines and dimensions were very similar to the one Il'já called home, while others displayed mind-boggling levels of differences.

He had even glimpsed events occurring on very different Earths that had been discovered by their corresponding versions of Yiziba...

* * *

 **In a universe where Japan won World War Two...**

 _Led by the newest incarnation of_ _ **Infinity**_ _, Inada Mizuho, the members of Class 3-B of Shiroiwa Junior High School had become the core of a reborn version of the Unending League of Super-Soldiers thanks to a triplet of native Yizibajohei recruiters who stumbled onto the horrid_ Program _and elected to see it forever cancelled. Now empowered, the VERY angry forty-two third-year middle school students — among them the only two-time player in that sick "game" — had rescued members of the class that had been pressed to take their place on Oki-shima, recruiting them to help the League be reborn..._

 _...and unleash an unstoppable rebellion against the Greater East Asia Republic!_

* * *

 **In a universe where mankind lives alongside very playful monsters...**

 _The Cosmic Mage Guild had just welcomed the gym leader from Lumiose City, Clermont Liscio — the newest incarnation of_ _ **Lightmage**_ _— among their group. Leading the Guild as they moved to make lives easier for the many pokémon running loose on Earth was the famous Ash Ketchum (the_ _ **Warlock**_ _), who had been joined by Misty Lillis (the_ _ **Thaumaturge**_ _), May Taylor (_ _ **Soulfire**_ _), Dawn Bauer (the_ _ **Enchantress**_ _) and Serena Burton (_ _ **Crimson Heart**_ _). Another of their member was May's brother Max (_ _ **Prophecy**_ _), who was now busy debating with Brock Stuart (_ _ **Rake**_ _) about whom they would approach next to be Gifted._

 _Much to the Guild's surprise, the profound amusement of authorities in all the leagues they had travelled and the consternation of Team Rocket and their copycats worldwide, pokémon had flocked in DROVES to join up with the teenagers who had such awesome fighting abilities of their own..._

* * *

 **In a universe where angry entities entrap students within schools...**

 _The newest incarnation of_ _ **Sentinel**_ _, Naegi Makoto, had helped a band of his peers from Class LXXVIII become Gifted to evade the human-Sidine hybrid Enoshima Junko from unleashing Ultimate Despair upon the word. Having discovered that she was the one who had controlled the devilish bear-like being Monokuma, Makoto — who just rescued Junko's childhood friend and later pillow scene partner Matsuda Yasuke from her bouts of despair — he was quick to have the poor fellow Gifted as the newest incarnation of the Archangel of Mortality,_ _ **Doctor Death**_ _._

 _Now, if only Makoto could find someone to become the new Infinity..._

* * *

 **In a universe haunted by the power of the Shadow Games...**

 _Kaiba Seto, the current incarnation of_ _ **Tempest**_ _, hugged his younger brother Mokuba — who had been Gifted with the power of_ _ **Dynamo**_ _— while he wailed profound thanks to the current incarnation of_ _ **Infinity**_ _, Kawai Shizuka. As Kasuga Ayumu had done many times in one particular universe, Shizuka had overcome her past-selves' reticence in allowing the use of battle dolls to allow the members of the Young Guns to evade the early death scenes that always haunted every incarnation of that particular team of child metas since the Dawn of Power._

 _Watching this, the reborn Pharaoh Atem living within the body of Mut_ _ō Yūgi_ _could only smile at such benevolence from the Goddess Who Walks Among Men..._

* * *

 **In a dystopian Chicago on a post-apocalyptic world...**

 _The former Abnegation faction member Beatrice Prior, now the current incarnation of_ _ **Rampage**_ _, smiled as she introduced Tobias Eaton — the new incarnation of_ _ **Carcajou**_ _— to her brother Caleb. The just-transferred Erudite — who was now the current incarnation of the_ _ **Academician —**_ _had been organizing an uprising against all the Factions to reunite society and allow the world to rebuild from the disasters that had divided families across the Windy City and beyond._

 _In a nearby room, Christina Kravitz (_ _ **Trebuchet**_ _) was comforting the newly-Gifted Peter Hayes — the reborn_ _ **Dominator**_ _— as she helped him overcome the guilt rocking his soul at his past behaviour..._

* * *

 **In a universe where one could manifest one's psyche in physical form...**

 _In the mountains outside the town of Inaba safely away from the norms, Satonaka Chie (_ _ **Warwind**_ _) gladly sparred with Sanada Akihiko (_ _ **Stone Mountain**_ _), the former glad to finally be able to unleash her outrage at all the murders and kidnappings rocking the area on someone who could take it with ease. Watching this from a safe distance away, the current incarnation of_ _ **Soul Searcher**_ _, Yamagishi F_ _ūka_ _, was having a debate with Amagi Yukiko (_ _ **Prometheus**_ _) and Kujikawa Rise (_ _ **Windtalker**_ _) concerning potential new recruits who could flesh out their fight scene team._

 _One particular person that had caught all their eyes was the new transfer student who had come in from the city, Narukami Y_ _ū_ _...who had found that strange amnesiac girl named "Maria" in that weird pocket dimension some days before..._

* * *

 **In a universe where computer networks had become sentient beings...**

 _As the NetNavi known commonly as "MegaMan" and "ProtoMan" found themselves wishing they were organic beings — or even better, Battle Dolls — so they could properly express their dismay at their operator's antics, the current incarnation of_ _ **Cyclotron**_ _, Lan Hikari, continued to tease his friend Chaud Blaze (_ _ **Icestorm**_ _) about his behaviour with others who were helping the current vice-president of IPC keep the number of sentient AI viruses down throughout the visual world._

 _Neither MegaMan or ProtoMan elected to warn the current incarnation of the Living Nuclear Reaction that his friend just froze his drink solid._

 _Lessons needed to be taught, of course..._

* * *

 **In a universe where the virtual world gave birth to living creatures...**

 _Relaxing in a park in Shinjuku, well away from the view of those who wouldn't begin to understand how Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei felt concerning nookie scenes, the current incarnation of_ _ **Silhouette**_ _, Nonaka Rika, enjoys a passionate kiss with Matsuko Takato (_ _ **Enchanter**_ _), as they take time to relax from fighting the latest creature to have emerged from the virtual world to cause trouble._

 _Watching their tamers express their deep love for the other, the digimon who had bonded with Rika and Takato could only glow with delight..._

* * *

 **And in a universe similar to — yet different from — Rika's and Takato's...**

 _The current incarnations of the most physically powerful of Yizibajohei, Takaishi "T.K." Takeru (_ _ **Mustang**_ _) and Kamiya Kari (_ _ **Wildflower**_ _), found themselves teaming up with four others of the Chosen Children who had also been Gifted to deal with the spider-like Arukenimon and the cadaver-like Mummymon from whatever plot the two shape-changers were moving to unleash on defenceless people throughout the world._

 _Many back on Yiziba, however, would be stunned to learn that T.K. and Kari had just met up with the current incarnations of the infamous Fabulous Quartet: Ichij_ _ōji Ken_ _(_ _ **Mister Fabulous**_ _), Inoue "Yolei" Miyako (the_ _ **Unseen Lady**_ _), Motomiya "Davis" Daisuke (_ _ **Blaze**_ _) and Hida "Cody" Iori (_ _the_ _ **Yoke**_ _)...!_

* * *

 _ **Back in Brooklyn...**_

Il'já had taken notes on those universes...and many others like them.

Even if he never would use them in those stories he wanted to publish, they would prove interesting tidbits to share with his fellow Gifted.

After all, everyone had a story...

...and his Gift gave him the means to tell some of them.

 _ **Fin...**_


	11. The Sunshine Troupe Assembles

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Magic In Miami: The Sunshine Troupe Assembles  
**_ by Regina Magia

Including characters and situations from _Bendy and the Ink Machine_ , created by TheMeatly Games.

* * *

 _ **Miami, Allison Studios on Virginia Key overlooking Biscayne Bay and downtown, the Tuesday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, an hour before suppertime...**_

" _From the beginning  
_ _We dreamed,  
_ _We created,  
_ _We controlled.  
_ _Now our creations rise against us.  
_ _Fear the Machine..._ "

"That's a scary thing to listen to, Harry."

Hearing that comment from the current chief of the Florida branch of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Harrison Bluth chuckled as he hit the pause function on YouTube. "It's strangely befitting," the current incarnation of the Ghostly Hunter, _**Ko'or'buor'be**_ (" _ **Neutron**_ "), stated as he turned to face the no-maj-born son of a state senator who had graduated near the top of his law enforcement class at Seven Hills after he scored eight mastery credits in his last year at Ilvermorny. "Yiziba was like this at the time of the Dawn of Power. Nations making machines to create metahumans so they could continue to fight wars. One thing they didn't realize until Destructo and his Chosen first appeared..."

"Was their 'slaves' developing ideas 'above their station' and deciding they didn't want to be slaves anymore," Todd Darnell finished, a lanky smile crossing his face. "Shades of what provoked the Blood War in Britain some years back. Not to mention what Grindelwald provoked in the Wars of Liberation."

The son of a freelance artist/animator nodded, his own olive eyes sparkling in amusement. Part-Cuban, his mother fled that island as a child shortly after Fidel Castro came to power in the late 1950s, then married his father when he was doing a spell of work for one of America's most prominent animation studios. Possessing a slight Latino tan on his skin and well-styled black hair, Harry was multilingual and quite bright for a Grade 11 student now attending Caleb Lain Senior High School in Coconut Grove on the mainland. Once he got the chance to learn about magic after meeting the Far-Seer of the Cosmic Mage Guild herself when she and her parents were on a magical creature hunt close to Disney World in Orlando, the would-be animator got the chance to be Gifted, acquiring high-level FISS powers and the unique ability to actually touch any non-corporeal entity such as ghosts.

It was because of that latter ability that Harry met Todd. When privately investigating reports of paranormal activity in Orlando a year ago, the would-be animator discovered a swamp wraith trying to consume the soul of innocent kids who should have been in middle school but were playing hooky. While fighting the creature, the Ghostly Hunter was surprised when a dozen aurors apparated in to get the kids out, though he was quick to recover and physically shredded the spectre. Then an auror detective, Todd Darnell remained behind to watch the fight, which made Harry Bluth a name for himself in the halls of the Department of Magic and the Magical Congress; sadly — though Harry didn't personally care for such things — a recommendation to see him awarded the Magical Medal of the United States was shot down by the "staleblood" ultra-conservatives in the Congress.

Footfalls shook Todd out of his introspection, making him turn to gaze as several people Harry's age came down from the main entrance to the studio, which doubled as the Bluth family home. "Hey, Harry! Hi, Todd! What's up?" the son of the janitor at Caleb Lain Senior High, William Bakshi, asked.

"Just getting some choice rumours from our local magical cop shop, Will," Harry answered as the other members of the _**Meketuo Dyatogam**_ (the " _ **Sunshine Troupe**_ ") took seats on nearby couches and chairs. "The DMLE's finally got a potential clue as to what's happening to Jay and the others at the school."

"What did you find, Inspector?" Savannah Andrews asked as she crossed her arms. The most popular girl in the school drama club was an African-Latino with chocolate skin, wavy brown hair and smoky grey eyes, possessing a body she kept in perfect shape even after she was Gifted as the Crystalline Weaver, _**Roer'buo**_ _ **Kimr'be**_ (" _ **Crystal Angel**_ "). "Is it something from your side of the Hudson?"

"Sadly, Savannah, it is," Todd said with a smirk on hearing that often-used term to refer to the headquarters of the Department of Magic in downtown Manhattan. With a twirl of his wand, he teleported rolled parchment sheets into the hands of the others in the room.

"So who's this swot?" Stanley Loughlin wondered as he gazed on the very pinched-looking young man on the animated photo at the top of his parchment.

"Whoa! I recognize this jerk," Will called out as Tim nodded in agreement. "Mitch Hanewal." As the others in the Troupe looked his way, the slender yet muscular boy with the sandy blond hair and the blue-green eyes added, "He's in Tim's and my class. Given the way he loves to dress as a goth, everyone there thinks that he should be marked in the yearbook as 'most likely to become a serial killer'." As the others laughed, the man also known as the Dynamo of Passion, _**Eteue**_ (" _ **Impulse**_ "), then fixed their group's guest with a knowing look. "I take it this idiot's something else."

"In that, you're right," Todd affirmed. "The man you know as 'Mitchell Hanewal' is actually a graduate of Seven Hills." As the others gazed on him — all of them knew about the men's magical finishing school located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Blacksburg in Virginia — he added, "When it was a BASIC school." As the others' eyes went wide, the inspector smirked. "Masters' Class of 'Seventy-six."

"Which one? Seventeen or eighteen?" Savannah asked, a look of disgust crossing her face as the basic message Todd was giving them sank in.

"The former."

All of the Troupe groaned. "Fucking death cheater!" Tim snarled, nearly spitting out that phrase that was almost as despised among most Yizibajohei as "umale".

Savannah's face twisted for a moment. "Ugh! I remember that home boy actually looking at me once after I dumped my ex before I got Gifted!" the mid-level sorceress and manipulator of mesonium sneered out. "I should've realized he was really off the rocker. The look on that creep's face..."

"A slave acting above her station?" Harry wondered.

"Damn straight!"

"So what's the sitch, Inspector?" Tim then wondered.

Todd smirked; his kids had loved _Kim Possible_ when it came out on television after the turn of the millennium, then got him and his wife hooked on that series. "We think he's a soul vampire, like what the Spanish turned Señora Gutierrez into becoming when she was still Princess Inés of the Inca because she was also a magical." As the others in the Troupe nodded in understanding, the DMLE officer added, "He feeds on the life force of others to stay alive and youthful, but he's knowledgeable enough to not make corpses as Señora Gutierrez did after she was revived near the Hellmouth." He tried not to frown on being forced to think of that Merlin-cursed place near Los Angeles.

Harry and his friends all nodded in understanding. In recent years, magical incidents in the Sunshine State had increased markedly for some odd reason. The resources of the DMLE and other elements of the Department of Magic had been stretched until Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei began to appear and made an impact; given normal staleblood disdain for "no-majs", it was probably a relief in the eyes of the conservatives in the Magical Congress that people like Harry Bluth had got involved...even if the chances of a general revelation of America's hidden magical communities grew more and more every time someone like Tariko Katabarbe came into the area to get someone Gifted. Fortunately, the situation in Florida wasn't close to what Sunnydale had endured before Buffy Summers and her friends in the Scooby Gang became active in keeping the "nightlife" there tamed.

Still, with a growing population of demons, spirits and other things impossible to classify, aurors in Florida were tearing their hair out as they tried to comprehend what was going on.

Well, they were now going to get a ton of help...

 _Thank God that all of Todd's friends are all 'pro-no-maj'_ , the current incarnation of the Ghostly Hunter mused to himself. _'No stalebloods need apply here'...!_

Shaking his head, the leader of the Troupe smiled as he glanced on his friends, all of whom were fellow Caleb Lain Senior High students. As she just hinted a moment ago, Savannah became Crystal Angel after her then-boyfriend had been caught cheating on her with the head of the school cheerleader squad. Will became Impulse in the wake of Harry actually saving both him and his father from the Bakshi family's next door neighbour...who turned out to be a rogue necromancer from _**Mexico**_ of all things! Stanley, a native of Crawley near London in England now on exchange while his father worked for Carnival Cruises' local offices, gained the magical Gifts of the Puppet Player, _**Memdyuodyato**_ (" _ **Gepetto**_ "), thanks to being friends with Hermione Granger; Stanley had been one of the few people who played with the current incarnation of the Bright Seamstress of Spells before the latter began Hogwarts five years ago. Tim had been Gifted after Will saved him from a sea spirit who had somehow got into a local hockey rink; the would-be professional figure skater was now a mid-level magically-powered FISS and cryokinetic sorcerer who currently called himself _**Byuoda**_ (" _ **Glacier**_ "), the Freezing Wall.

"A death cheater a day keeps the Doctor away."

Laughter filled the room as people gazed on Gavin Williams, the latter's green eyes sparkling with amusement. The Troupe's red-haired equivalent to Winston Egbert of the Sweet Valley Boosters or Xander Harris of the Scooby Gang, he normally worked as treasurer for the Caleb Lain Senior High student council. He had stumbled onto the Troupe's activities four months ago after Harry and his friends moved to clear out an honest-to-goodness _**ch'**_ _ **ŭ**_ _ **kshin**_ of all things from the school; how a _**Korean**_ spirit of toilets had got to _**America**_ STILL mystified Todd's friends in the Magical Advanced Research Projects Agency on Mount Greylock in Massachusetts. Because of that discovery and wanting to get in on the action in protecting Florida from the issues Harry warned him about, Gavin was welcomed into the Troupe, being Gifted as the Warning Bell of the East, _**R'bodum**_ (" _ **Carillon**_ "), a man with a deep singing voice that could stun and kill someone if he really put all his power behind it.

"Well, it's best to keep Miss Black out of the situation," Stanley mused before sipping the tea he had made for himself before coming down. "According to 'Mione, the last time she was in Britain and one of the Dementors sent out to track down Rose Potter's godfather tried to attack her, Miss Black got..." Here, the blond, grey-eyed West Sussaxon cruise director's son shuddered. "Creative."

"What happened?" Todd asked; as a no-maj-born raised to understand by his parents that certain things simply shouldn't be done in a civilized society, he definitely didn't care for the soul vampires that the British Ministry of Magic used to guard their prisoners at Azkaban.

"Well, from what she told me, every magical in Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats heard the thing screaming its guts out while Miss Black held it down and plucked out every soul it had consumed one at a time like she would take off the legs of a centipede, singing some weird ditty she learned when she was in New York before Miss Katabarbe found her and got her Gifted. Everyone could HEAR her sing, by the way!" As the others in the room laughed, Stanley added, "When a dozen more of those things showed up, Miss Black was happy to do a repeat performance. Senior Undersecretary Umbridge had her tracked down and sent some of Regent Lady Bones' people to arrest her, with her going along the way. Soon as those poor chaps saw who it was, they stunned Umbridge, then themselves!"

More laughter filled the room. Much that there were times the Archangel of Mortality glanced towards Florida while she lived with her twin sister in their family home outside Savannah, Margo Black hadn't actually entered the Sunshine State to deal with the growing number of malevolent supernatural beings that were starting to make a little too much noise for people's comfort on BOTH sides of the magical security divide. When that was noted in MARPA, the head of research concluded that because Margo constantly projected a necrotic aura from her body even when she was not exercising her powers, not even the most powerful demon wanted to try their luck with her or her twin sister Nora Chapelle.

Thinking of that, Harry sighed. _It's good that Georgia and the Carolinas are relatively safe. Now we have to clear Florida out_ , the Ghostly Hunter mused to himself as he crossed his arms, gazing down at the portrait of Mitchell Hanewal. He then blinked as memory came back to him. "Wait a minute..."

"What is it, man?" Will asked.

"I've seen Jay and a few others we've earmarked as potential Gifting candidates hanging out with this death cheater," Harry noted.

Tim moaned. Harry had called the meeting to discuss the fact that many of their peers at Caleb Lain Senior High were acting as if someone was just trying to suck the joy out of their very lives; common among the incidents the Troupe had seen at school included forgetfulness, long absences from class and radical changes in behaviour. "Yeah, I've seen a couple I marked as potentials hanging out with him. Didn't notice if they were acting as if this jerk's being sucky-sucky with their souls..." Here, the Freezing Wall considered that before he shook his head. "Have to keep an eye out for that."

"Amen to that, Tim," Savannah noted, grimly nodded.

"We have to get everyone else alerted, dude," Gavin warned.

"Agreed," Harry noted with a determined nod. One thing the Sunshine Troupe did while keeping the supernatural problems somewhat under control was to go out and find people across the peninsula and the Panhandle to be Gifted themselves, thus spread protection throughout the state. The main group of the Troupe's "branch offices" — Gavin's name for them — were based out of Orlando; Harry and his friends always loved to hit Florida's fourth largest city almost every weekend to get somewhere away from Miami to recharge the mental batteries and bring their internal stress levels to safer levels.

But with what Todd just dropped on their laps...!

"Okay, we'll spread the word and keep an eye on our friends in school," the Ghost Hunter then reported. "Gavin, get those of our friends who can access federal and state databases concerning strange deaths or unsolved disappearances to sniff around. Start drawing up numbers, locations, the whole works. I'm wondering if Mitch is killing people and transforming them into some of the things we've had to deal with." Here, he gazed down on the detailed report the DMLE had drawn up concerning the Seven Hills alumnus from two centuries before. "Todd, if your friends in MARPA or other parts of the DOM can jump in on this without making the stalebloods throw a snit, all the help you guys can give is more than welcome. Stan, pass this on to Hermione. She's lovers with Pansy Parkinson, who's a reality warper. Margo would listen more to someone like Pansy than people like us. We notice ANY disappearances among the students or staff, we jump on it right away. Chances are some of the missing people..."

"Might be prisoners of this bastard to keep him 'recharged'," Will finished.

"Damn straight! Savannah, can you cook up the pre-Gifting cake?"

The drama club member tried not to groan at that request. Despite the very egalitarian worldview of the natives of the World of the Forge, she often got stuck with the "domestic scenes" since none of the boys here could cook; this wasn't a skill that had been high in demand on Yiziba since the start of the Great Show of Life in earnest. "Sure, I've got some slices in cold storage. Much that it will get the bad gunk out of them if this white trash has been trying to turn them into his pet creature army..."

"Doubt they'll say 'no' to being Gifted, Savannah," Will lamented. "After all, nothing gets the fight scenes going better than a revenge quest."

Laughter filled the room...

 _ **Fin...For Now!**_


	12. Reasons For Living

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Reasons For Living  
**_ by Regina Magia

* * *

 _ **San Francisco, north of the Presidio, the second Saturday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, dawn (Tōkyō time: Midnight on Sunday)...**_

Maurecia Gutiérrez grinned contently as she watched the sun rise past the peaks of the Southern Coast Ranges to her east and southeast. Sitting atop the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, she sighed, letting the wind blow through her hair. The seventeen-year-old African-Latina descent from Costa Rica had become the newest incarnation of the Ultimate Speedster, _**Dorim**_ (" _ **Redline**_ "), less than two weeks ago courtesy of a local Terran-turned-Yizibajohei recruiter. Remembering that awesome moment when her life definitely took a shift for the better, she gazed at herself, now clad in a cherry red jumpsuit accented with pale yellow lightning bolts, belt and racing boots similar to what the Flash wore.

Going from a paraplegic to a super-speedster had really done wonders for her emotional state.

A year before, she lost the use of her legs in an accident, ending any chances of pursuing an athletic career while getting her kinesiology degree from the University of California, San Francisco. Such a tragedy made Maurecia bitter enough to contemplate suicide, which so alarmed her parents that she was immediately put into psychological counselling while undergoing rehab regardless of the costs they had to incur through their health insurance provider; fortunately, the American Affordable Care Act — "Bartletcare" as it was decried as by Republicans who opposed such a "socialist" move to give people universal single-payer insurance — ensured the Gutiérrez family didn't have to declare bankruptcy. A week before meeting the recruiter, Maurecia and a few of her classmates formed a suicide pact.

But NOW...?

Now she was back on her feet — literally AND figuratively! — and faster than ever!

There was no way she was going to throw her life away now.

Getting up to her feet, she took out the burner phone she purchased only a few days ago...

[ **Changed my mind. Go ahead without me.** ]

Hitting SEND, she thought about it for a moment...then let the phone fall from her hands, watching it plummet into the waters of the bay. Shaking her head, Maurecia sighed. No, there was no need to put herself through her death scene now that she was the Ultimate Speedster.

And if the others wanted to do their death scenes...?

It wasn't her business anymore.

One of the basic lessons of the Dawn of Power was simple:

You couldn't save everyone.

Nodding as she chased away the memories of her "friends", Maurecia hopped onto the supporting cable connecting the south tower to the anchorage in the Presidio, speed-hopping down to the road deck.

"Born to run, baby!" she cackled. "Born to RUN!"

In the early morning fog of San Francisco, a crimson and gold steak ripped through the streets of the city at speeds that couldn't be followed by the normal eye and even most security camera systems...!

* * *

 _ **A hotel in Des Moines, that moment (local time: An hour after breakfast)...**_

"Kate? How're you feeling, babe?"

Looking away from the window of her hotel room where she had gazed on the morning traffic, Kate Churchill walked over to the bed, sitting next to her boyfriend. "A lot better, Kirk," the blonde farmer's daughter from the town of Orient, birthplace of one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice presidents, lamented with a sigh. "It feels good to be away from that woman."

Brushing aside a lock of his curly brown hair — which made Kirk Wallace look like a teenage version of Brian May of Queen — he pulled her into a warm embrace. Only a few months ago, the high school senior had come across his girlfriend crying by herself under a tree in a fallow field near his country home not far from Orient. As it turned out, Kate's mother Darlene Churchill had been verbally and physically abusing her since the death of her husband Mark two years before thanks to a drunken auto accident. Only the knowledge that he could kill the mouthy bitch who was WAY too close to Tariko Katabarbe's own estranged mother Moroboshi Kinshō for anyone's comfort had kept him from beating the crap out of the woman, then dumping her into the Missouri River; as the Sharpshooter of Light, _**Kutosem**_ (" _ **Dellingr**_ "), he could project powerful energy blasts with the accuracy of a hard-core sniper like Canada's Rob Furlong or England's Craig Harrison in addition to being a mid-level FISS.

Instead, he took the same path Tariko did when it came to people like Rose Potter, Tendō Akane and Hayashi Kanami, offering Kate the chance to get away from her mother and become one of the Gifted.

After seeing him demonstrate his own powers on some beat up cars in a nearby junkyard, Kate gladly accepted, becoming the newest incarnation of the Sovereign of Storms, _**Tonu Beni**_ (" _ **Cloud Princess**_ ").

The day after her Gifting, the Adair County Sheriffs Office received a written confession from Kate detailing the verbal abuse her mother had forced on her, which made her run away from home. That had prompted a quick arrest. Kirk's parents received a similar message, one that also told them the couple had decided to elope. The two Iowans were now relaxing in a comfy hotel room in the state capital, waiting for a chance to get a bus to Los Angeles on their way to Sunnydale.

Hearing of the nasties that lurked around the Hellmouth, they wanted in on the action...

After a moment of warm kisses, Kate then purred, "You know, I've never done a pillow scene."

A blush answered her as Kirk felt his "little shooter" instantly stiffen. "Er...are you interested...?"

She laughed. "I was saving myself for marriage," she explained as she swung her legs up, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Then again, 'premarital' pillow scenes aren't a big deal on Yiziba, are they?"

A snort escaped him. "That...is obviously a rhetorical question."

The couple laughed before they enjoyed a very warm kiss...

* * *

 _ **Livermore in California (fifty kilometres east-southeast of San Francisco), that moment...**_

"You almost ready, Charlotte?!"

"Just about!" the New Orleans native replied to her lover Kayla Lei as she finished removing her stage attire in the wake of an all-night practice run for the next week's performances in town. Much as she wished that she could do her shows in her Yizibajohei battlesuit, she knew how important the concept of secret identities was. Both C.J. Cregg and President Bartlet had maintained a remarkable level of discretion about people like Charlotte Vargas during their eye-opening press conference on Sunday when Fukushima Fujiko was introduced to the world by Saeru Hinako in the wake of Margareta von Spee's public Gifting and her battle against the Goa'uld in the skies over Montevideo.

Besides, if the audience knew she could use REAL magic, it would rob the show of its mystery.

That ultimately defeated the purpose of stage magic.

Ever since she was a child, the second-generation nimmib descendant of a line of hoodoo priestesses who had stood up against the daywalker vampires who tried their best to stamp out magic among African slaves in the antebellum South had been fascinated by magic, both the spell casting and sleight-of-hand varieties. Having not inherited her great-grandmother's gift that could have seen her invited to Ilvermorny, Charlotte had chosen to take up studying stage magic. Her ability to understand how to perform it soon saw her recruited to one of America's few remaining travelling carnivals.

Said circus had made a stop in Sweet Valley near Vandenberg Air Force Base two years ago. There, Charlotte had encountered the Wakefield twins and other members of the Sweet Valley Boosters. The hoodoo priestess' great-granddaughter soon learned what they really were when she saw Jessica Wakefield catch a falling Ferris wheel one evening after some animal rights activists broke into the exhibition grounds to free all the "tortured" animals contained within.

By the time the carnival had departed for its next stop, Charlotte had become the Occult Dazzler, _**Myuno Bumbae**_ (" _ **Witchbrand**_ ").

The dark-skinned brunette blinked as she shook her head from her contemplation, then she smiled, not turning to look towards the door of her trailer. "What's shaking, kids?"

Shocked gasps echoed from outside her trailer, then the air inside her trailer shifted to reveal two blushing teenagers, a blonde girl with brown eyes and a dark-skinned tattooed boy with bushy black hair and deep brown eyes. A quick gaze with mage sight told Charlotte who they were: Megan Baynard, current incarnation of the Spectral Observer, _**Timr'buo**_ (" _ **Witness**_ ")...and her boyfriend Taree Printz, who had just been Gifted to become the Wandering Shifter, _**Bimsuor'ba**_ (" _ **Wandeln**_ ").

Of course, the hoodoo princess' great-granddaughter had a PAA that had been personally built for her by Elizabeth Wakefield after Charlotte's Gifting which allowed her to get all the updates from Hasegawa Chisame concerning all the new people who had become Gifted.

"Nothing gets by you, huh?" Megan then said, her cheeks reddening more.

That made her boyfriend blink. "You know each other?!"

"Ms. Vargas' last incarnation was my last incarnation's mother," the recently "retired" thief/prostitute from Delaware explained. "When we were on Yiziba after you took a dive into the Great Crystal yesterday, I heard from Nexus that someone had become the new Witchbrand two years ago. I met up with her while you were busy talking with Sara and Lara back in Wilmington."

Hearing that, Charlotte nodded. Sara Bernat and Lara James (who went by the street name Lara Roxx) were also former members of Larry Clayton's gang of thieves that had operated from Delaware's largest city. "Inviting them to get Gifted, were you?" she asked.

"They're all for it," Taree confirmed as he thumbed behind him towards one end of the fairgrounds. "They're waiting for us now by the funnel cake stand."

"Good thing practice is over for the weekend," Charlotte then declared with a tired sigh. "With any luck, we should be back in time for dinner. You ought to try Kayla's fried chicken. It's scrumptious!"

Both former street kids from Delaware purred in anticipation...

 _ **The End...For Now**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

As _The West Wing_ is one of the base storylines behind _The End of the Circus_ , having this universe's version of the **Affordable Care Act** called " **Bartletcare** " seemed logical.

Canadian Army corporal **Rob Furlong** (born 1976) was the world's record holder when it came to the longest confirmed sniper kill, acquired in March of 2002 in Afghanistan; the range was 2,430 metres (2,657 yards). That was beaten by British Army corporal of horse (sergeant) **Craig Harrison** (born 1974), who got a kill shot in Afghanistan in November 2009 at a range of 2,475 metres (2,707 yards). That record would be broken by a sniper from Canada's **Joint Task Force Two** (whose name is withheld due to security), who achieved a kill at 3,540 metres (3,871 yards) in May 2017 during the Iraq Civil War.

 _ **Witness**_ ( **Megan Baynard** ) and _**Wandeln**_ ( **Taree Printz** ) first appeared in _A "Quiet" Time in Delaware_.


	13. Ataru's Angels: True Noble of the Centre

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _We were finally free of Lum.  
_ _Our so-called "wife", the second pretty girl in our_ Book of Pretty Girls _, whom we both still cared for, but certainly weren't interested in becoming lifetime pillow scene partners with.  
_ _Especially with Onē-san now Gifted at last as Tuyuki…  
_ _...and I, the split-off part of her soul created back in November thanks to Cherry's cursed cake and Lum's eta lollipop, now in a battle doll body.  
_ _That has caused quite the furor back home on Yiziba.  
_ _Our granduncle Neyanege is already screaming to launch a repeat of the Mother of All Fight Scenes on the Urusians in vengeance.  
_ _Naturally, Aruka Damasu-chan's husband Oetoka Go'ono is all for such a thing.  
_ _So Onē-san has to go slap them and others like them down to prevent a multi-planetary Mother of All Fight Scenes.  
_ _As for me...?  
_ _Well, it's back to Earth...but not yet back to Tomobiki.  
_ _Since all the fools who had been kidnapped with us to attend our "wedding" to Lum were effectively put into the healer's cockpit by Ayumu-chan, I've got at least two weeks' vacation from the idiot sameness of that town.  
_ _Fortunately, our childhood friends Soa Nieso and Wuke Tom — who both had been forced into battle doll bodies shortly after Ayumu-chan got Gifted thanks to an idiot who didn't care for Terrans becoming Yizibajohei — were more than happy to accompany me to keep me safe.  
_ _Hopefully, we'll all get Gifted. I hate the idea of the uncertainty my life's become thanks to what the idiots that trapped us in Tomobiki back in September ultimately forced on Onē-san and I.  
_ _And maybe...  
_ _Soa, Wuke and I will get lucky and find more people to be Gifted.  
_ _After all, the Show must go on...  
_ _ **...excerpt from Moroboshi Ataru's diary, dated Sunday 15 April 2012**_

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Ataru's Angels: The True Noble of the Centre  
**_ by Fred Herriot

* * *

 _ **Washington, the National Mall close to the Washington Monument, the Monday after Moroboshi Ataru's and Redet Lum's attempted marriage, mid-afternoon (Tōkyō time: Tuesday, four hours after midnight)...**_

"You must be happy to be rid of such a gaudy little thing."

Moroboshi Ataru chuckled as he sat back on the park bench that gave him and his companions a good view of the stone obelisk honouring America's first president on the east side of 14th Street between Madison Drive NW and Jefferson Drive SW, allowing the abnormally warm spring breeze to flow past his hair as his current companions leaned close to him. Fortunately, the many trips the now-Gifted Trickster of the Show had undergone to Earth since her adoption by the late Ayone Katabarbe eleven years before had taught both Soa Nieso and Wuke Tom how to dress as normal Earth boys; usual dress for the Nameless on Yiziba was light-coloured wrap-around tunics over wide-bottomed trousers. And while some of the passers by had glanced at the lone Japanese teenager and the two obvious Western teens being so close to each other in such a public place, most of the people out walking or jogging around the National Mall on Emancipation Day just passed them by.

"It's going to annoy our so-called 'mother' once she learns that she doesn't have the money that was given with that and all the other medals we were awarded for 'defeating' Lum," Ataru noted as Soa squeezed his hand in support. As Wuke wrapped his arm around the other man's neck to give him a kiss on the cheek, the now-battle doll added, "This is just the start of the fight scene, guys. Whoever was so desperate enough to make us forget home in the face of an INVASION...!"

Both natives of the northern polar continent nodded in understanding. After Ataru emerged as his own person from the Doll House on Saturday morning, Tariko held a planning meeting of some of the most powerful people she helped get Gifted over the last decade to figure out what the hell happened to her and how the revenge scene could be delivered. Right away, Mizuhara Koyomi used her telepathy to reverse the brainwashing on everyone from the Inshin Group based in Tomobiki to make sure that whatever accounts that had been left behind for the Trickster of the Show by her late grandmother Nagaiwakai hadn't been tapped into by her parents. While there had been some embezzlement, a very irate family court judge acting on the prompting of the Imperial Palace had the funds restored to where they should have been. Even better, an internal investigation was launched against the Tomobiki police box and its supervisor, Tariko's maternal uncle Yamaguchi Keisuke; with that underway, there was no hope for Kinshō or her husband Muchi to try to force Yumoa Reigi to get "their" money back from accounts held by their son-turned-daughter or anyone Tariko had properly authorized to access them.

That would be quite the interesting confrontation scene if the yūjo — Tariko had long known of her birth mother's reckless promiscuity back when she was a high school student in the early 1990s, worlds worse than anything "Ataru" ever did — ever found out she was once again POOR!

Too bad...

"Oh!"

All three boys perked before they looked over...

...then their eyes widened on seeing the pretty teenager nearby. She had long, wavy brown hair partially held down by a silver hairband, tied in a high ponytail that reached to her waist. Eyes the same shade as Rose Potter's peeked out of an artistic oval face, they behind reading bifocals. She was well-shaped for someone of around eighteen, her body currently covered in stylish clothing though she had a white school jersey tied around her waist, that bearing the black **SWW** on the chest indicating she was a student at the School Without Walls located on the campus of George Washington University to the west of the White House. Naturally, she had a large bookbag slung over her shoulder. "Afternoon," Ataru greeted her with a friendly smile as his companions waved at her. "Just got out of the library?"

She blinked several times as a lost look crossed her face for a moment. "Moroboshi...Ataru...?"

A surprised look crossed his face before he looked around conspiratorially. "Are you sure?" he hissed as Soa and Wuke snickered. "I mean, this doesn't look like Tomobiki or any other place in Japan."

The lost look on her face remained in place as her head tilted slightly. "You are the _**Great Evil**_...!" she stated, the initial emotion she felt on confronting the most famous teenager on Earth today in Washington of all places fading, replaced by an almost-robotic forced calm.

Hearing that, Ataru's friends gazed at the woman's exposed ears, which were round as Terrans would have it and not tapered as members of the race that worshipped Ataru's "wife" as a living goddess possessed. The boys then stood, moving to stand closer to the woman as their noses flared, instantly detecting a strong mineral-like tincture in the air around her, just barely masked by the perfume she wore. After a quick glance around to ensure the few passers by didn't take notice of this and assume the wrong thing, Ataru nodded to the south of east. "We're staying at the Holiday Inn on C Street," he then declared. "Room 469. Ask for Tom." With that, he waved as he headed off, his friends following...

* * *

Watching as the man she had been brainwashed into seeing as a devil walk away from her, Samantha Applegate blinked as the information acquired by her masters about the man flooded her mind. Instantly, a tonne of discrepancies came up. The way he was walking; it wasn't the strange prance he used in the Holy City since the Tag Race. Atop that, his being in _**America**_ of all places when by all rights he should be on the planet Uru was something that just didn't compute. To say anything of his companions; neither the slender effeminate blond with the sky blue eyes or the very effeminate raven-haired boy with the dark eyes were known to ANY observer now based in the Holy City.

And...

Huh?

 _ **WHAT...?!**_

Samantha's jaw dropped to the sidewalk as she watched Ataru wrap his arms around his friends' necks, then he drew the blond in to give him a very passionate kiss. As the native of Georgetown goggled in disbelief at such an erotic act being done to another MAN by the Great Evil, Ataru then surprised her more by kissing the brunette in the same manner. _He's not GAY!_ a part of her mind railed at something so sensual; it was known that despite his propensity to chase girls to get names and phone numbers for dates, Moroboshi Ataru was actually quite shy when it came to expressing such intimacies with anyone, especially his former girlfriend Miyake Shinobu or the living goddess he was now engaged to marry...

Jolting as deeply-set mental commands instantly kicked in, Samantha then headed off in the wake of the living abnormality now at least ten metres ahead of her. The hierarchy of the Church of Lum had gone to panic stations when the tragic news of what befell the Goddess on Friday evening Washington time got to Phentax Two. As the Army of Lum went to full war alert, all cultural observers on Earth and other planets were ordered to be on the lookout for ANYTHING that could explain how it was possible that an entire BUILDING the size of the great dome of the Capitol was CRUSHED down on the heads of the Goddess and all her Holy Company, with the Great Evil somehow escaping totally unharmed.

Whoever had done THAT had earned them the wrath of the Most Faithful.

And they would PAY!

* * *

 _ **The Holiday Inn Washington Capitol on C Street SW at the corner of 6th Street SW (750 metres west of southwest from Capitol Hill), an hour later...**_

A polite knock echoed at the door to Room 469 overlooking the tree-lined boulevard that fronted the headquarters complex of the Department of Education. "Come in! The door's unlocked!" Ataru called out from his place beside the window, looking over.

The door opened to reveal the lovely Terran-turned-Avalonian — the "weight" of her soul in her life aura indicated such to the man destined when he was child to become the Trickster of the Show and had been pre-Gifted — who he just met on the National Mall. A neutral look was on her face as she closed the door, then locked it. Smiling knowingly at that act, Ataru then blinked as she reached into her bookbag to draw out something similar to a Glock 17 pistol with a well-shaped targeting laser under the barrel. "A Lawgiver?" he asked as he sipped a can of Coke while she aimed it his way. "That's being rather reckless. If it goes off, the bolt will punch through the window and rip into the building across the street. You can guarantee the FBI and a few other agencies will definitely take interest in that..."

"Shut up!" she snapped as she leaned herself into her weapon to make she wouldn't be affected by recoil if she fired. "Sit down on the bed! You've got some answers to give me, devil!"

"Oh, sorry!" he declared as he moved to sit on one of the two double beds in the room. "Didn't mean to offend you. May I at least have the name of such a lovely bioroid who has good taste in weapons?"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"How do you know that?" she then squeaked out, her arms shuddering.

Ataru smiled as he calmly stood up, walking over to click on the safety of the pulse-particle pistol she had in her hand. "You're an Avalonian, but were born Terran," he declared. "I assume you were some accident victim that some kind observer from Phentax Two 'took pity on' and helped get you a body-swap. However, knowing how much the rimrae umale on that planet always treat your kind, you were mentally sublimed to whatever 'faith du jour' your master or mistress acknowledges as his or her own." He tried not to sneer the Yizibajohei term for "copycat same" as he thought about those lunatics. "Of course, learning that fool Ōgi now thinks of me as a 'great evil' because I won't kiss the boots of his so-called 'goddess' — when it's as clear as mud in a ballroom that he just wants Lum for himself — didn't impress me. Much less the other version of me. You must know of that incident when we were split apart into twins. On the eleventh of November just past?" He hummed in anticipation.

She blinked before lowering her weapon. As Ataru took it out of her hand to place on the dresser where the television was located, she blinked several times. "How do you know all these things?" she then asked, still in a neutral voice even if she didn't lunge over to take back the Lawgiver he removed from her hands. "The Goddess has done all she could to keep you ignorant of matters beyond Earth."

"Ah!" he trilled out. "Tell me something. How many observation stations were in and around Nishitōkyō before Lum came to live with our birth parents after she LIED about our being 'married' to her?" As her eyes flared, he made a "no-no" gesture with his index finger. "Don't lie about that, Miss Applegate." She blinked on hearing him address her by name, then remembered her name was on her sweatshirt. "We know the difference between what happens when one tags an Oni's horns in a _**tag race**_ and what happens when one does that _**beyond**_ a tag race. It should be quite logical to you: She is not married to us by her people's customs...and on our TRUE home planet, the whole concept of marriage went by the wayside even among the Nameless two sagas ago after the Show got started in earnest."

A look of HORROR crossed her face for a moment as memories that had been force-fed into her after her body swap flooded her mind before that melted into a neutral stare. "You're _**Yizibajohei**_...?"

"We are," he stated. "Until the eleventh of November, we were one whole being named Tariko Katabarbe, adopted _**daughter**_ of the late Ayone Katabarbe and would-be adopted daughter of the late Haroga'a Hame'e, the twenty-seventh Tuyuki of the Great Show of Life." As her eyes went wide again on hearing the battle name of the infamous Trickster of the Show, he smirked. "Yes, we were born Moroboshi Ataru to Moroboshi Muchi and Yamaguchi Kinshō in Wakkanai back in '95, but as far as we're both concerned — both Onē-san and I — they're just the _**genetic donors**_. They have NO right to dictate anything to either of us, not to mention try to marry us off to anyone just to give them a better life for themselves. And since Onē-san is now _**Gifted**_ to be the new Tuyuki, you can guess what will happen to those who've pissed her off. And it's a GROWING hit list!" As she began to tremble, he tenderly smiled as he touched her neck. "You're not on it, Miss Applegate."

That contact kicked in Samantha Applegate's touch-telepathy as mind-probes plunged into his soul to detect if he was lying. Not sensing any mental shields to protect him from her, she scanned his memories to see if what he just said was some sort of hideous lie unleashed by one of the most feared of They Who Must Never Be Named to hurt the Goddess due to some slight; the native of Georgetown knew Redet Lum had NEVER done anything concerning any of the maniacs of the third world of Kaeyu.

As memories that had been suppressed in Ataru for almost eight months flooded her mind for instant analysis, he smiled as he guided the senior student over to one of the beds, sitting her down to make her more comfortable while keeping his hand on her neck to allow Samantha to continue to probe his mind. Thanks to many past encounters Tariko had with Avalonians of all stripes, her effective twin brother knew how _**erotic**_ such contact was to the bioroid descendants of Sagussa, a world that Tariko (then in her birth form as Moroboshi Ataru) visited just before his sixth birthday in 2001, meeting the Daishi'cha — the "Maidens of the Eternal Voyager" as they were known across the local cluster — who had been literally reborn to give life to a world that was now in far worse shape thank Yiziba had been at the start of the Starvation Times two millennia ago. As Samantha's breathing increased and a flushed look crossed her face, Ataru smiled as he gently reached for one of her hands to allow it to rest on his crotch; he had put on a housecoat with nothing on underneath just for this moment.

Given how much intimate physical contact was a healthy thing for an Avalonian, letting her know that he was willing to enjoy a wonderful pillow scene — his actual first in this body — was just being kind.

And given how much she was becoming aroused by having such contact, she was happy to oblige...

* * *

 _ **Two hours later...**_

A groan escaped Samantha as her eyes fluttered open, then she blinked on sensing she was nude in a bed that wasn't her own, a man under the covers beside her, his arm gently wrapped around her waist. As she took a moment to consider that, she blinked as the waterfall of memories she just absorbed from Moroboshi Ataru came back to her, nearly drowning her own mind out as the rush of yet another wonderful orgasm flooded her loins. Taking a deep breath as she fought to stabilize her soul from the echoes of such an onslaught, she then looked right to see his peacefully-sleeping face close to her own. Seeing the damp cheeks marking that he had wept on understanding what had happened to her...!

Shaking her head, the private school senior could only breathe out as she relaxed herself, not shifting around too much; Ataru was still operating on Tōkyō time and dawn was just breaking over Japan's capital city if her own time sense was correct. Remembering the day two years ago when she had been pulled out of a fire in her family home despite suffering third-degree burns over most of her body, Samantha felt rage flood her. With the deaths of her parents in that fire, she had been orphaned...but was soon fostered by a man named John Strohl, who ran a chain of coffee shops throughout the nation's capital and who was happy to give the badly burned teenager a new start on life.

John Strohl had actually been born on Phentax Three as Johnt dai-Strangh, a fifth-generation cultural observer who often seemed more American than Niphentaxian even in private. With full access to non-templated Avalonian bodies, he was happy to allow Samantha to get a new LIFE for herself...though given he was no "heretic" by any stretch of the imagination, he made sure that his "foster child" would be totally loyal to the "one true faith" and its teenage leader, Ōgi ot'ndai-Zkuhsbagh.

Fortunately for Samantha, the man was no pedophile.

Unfortunately, he DID know of the Avalonian need for all forms of intimacy...yet, like many of his race had done over the last century and more, he completely missed the mark on preparing an acceptable "solution" for his pretty bioroid slave, one that wouldn't raise any sort of attention.

Samantha had been on her way back to her house to spend time with her immediate controller — a well-programmed Type 29G intimate companion android built as a Terran-form teenage man on Zeiwan to act as auxiliary observer and slave overseer — to report on her observations about school, friends and society as a whole when she had spotted Ataru and his companions at the National Mall...

 _Oh, shit...!_

"You don't have to see him until eight o'clock. Relax."

Samantha jerked before she looked right to see Ataru now gazing warmly at her. Blinking as it suddenly dawned on her that the mentally-ingrained URGENCY to obey everything that both her "foster father" and her "boyfriend" had always demanded of her was now GONE from her soul, she then shifted herself to lean against him. "What did you do to me?" she quietly wondered.

A chuckle escaped him. "One benefit of having one's battle doll body prepared by the current Infinity and having been influenced by the current Tuyuki is that I do possess very limited reality warping powers of my own. We've long known how to deal with that stupid 'loyalty lock' thing in your blood." He leaned over to tenderly kiss her, earning him a delighted purr in return. "And for your next act?" As she gaped at him, he winked. "Now that you're free and able to live your own life?"

She blinked before she purred. "Again?"

His eyebrow arched, then he smiled. "It will be my pleasure indeed..."

* * *

 _ **Cheverly in Maryland, close to Cheverly Station on the Washington Metro Orange Line (eleven kilometres east-northeast of the White House), two hours later...**_

A contently smiling Samantha Applegate, looking quite refreshed, stepped out of the eastbound car she had taken from the underground station close to the Smithsonian Institution on the south side of the National Mall. She was followed by a lone Japanese man in normal clothing, hands in his pockets as he seemed to be minding his own business. Two normal boys who were clearly comfortable with their sexual orientation walked out of the station hand-in-hand right afterwards.

The four people sat on separate benches by the bus stop that allowed people to connect to the Washington Metro via TheBus service serving Maryland's Prince George's County. Soon enough, the northbound Route 18 came into the turnabout. Samantha and her rather discrete followers boarded the vehicle, which then drove off onto Cheverly Avenue, heading northbound towards the intersection of Landover Road. Samantha run off for the stop at Lombard Street, close to the local American Legion. The Japanese man and the young gay couple who had boarded the bus with her had got off at the stop beforehand, close to the corner of Inwood Street. Once they got onto the sidewalk, Moroboshi Ataru headed north on Cheverly towards Kilmer Street while Soa Nieso and Wuke Tom took Inwood to Parkway Street north towards Kilmer; Samantha approached that street from the north.

They came together at a tree-lined property at the corner of Kilmer and Parkway. People living around them would be hard pressed to note that two years before, the Applegate home had been a smoking ruin, the funeral pyre of Samantha's parents David and Catherine; the house had been restored to full function by a local construction company paid top dollar by Samantha's foster father to give her a sense of continuity in her life. Of course, said property had many defences to prevent the nosy from noting who else lived with the orphaned high school senior; the few times someone saw someone else there, they noted that said person was a slightly older man who acted as an in-home caretaker to allow her to continue to attend school. Naturally, no one in the area could begin to imagine what was really going on there, much less even suspect that actual ALIENS were now involved with their neighbour's life.

Never mind the truth of what happened to Samantha Applegate...

Since it was just past sunset, very few people looking out onto the property would be able to take note of the three young men who had approached the Applegate home from two directions, one fellow walking up to the side door by the garage and an obvious gay couple approaching from the rear, walking across the back lawn to step through the main doors leading to the kitchen.

Once inside the Applegate home, Ataru immediately slipped off his shoes — even if such wasn't a thing on Yiziba these days, he was still well-ingrained when it came to Japanese customs inside a private residence — then he scanned around. His ears were quick to pick up the passionate moans of two people engaged in a very frantic pillow scene in the upstairs bedroom. "Thank the Crystal she did have someone to be with her all this time," he muttered under his breath as he drew out a PAA, placing it on the coffee table in the living room before tapping the crystal on it to project a powerful "notice-me-not" field to encase the whole of the Applegate house. He then waited as Soa and Wuke slipped off their own shoes in the kitchen entranceway before they moved to pull drapes closed to prevent anyone who might sneak up onto the property from looking inside to see what was going on.

With that, all three boys undressed, then shared warm kisses with each other before heading upstairs...

* * *

 _ **Upstairs...**_

Samantha gasped in delight as release came, then she collapsed onto the bed as her "overseer" — she pretty much saw him as her "best male friend with benefits" even if he was all machine under his baby-soft skin — moved to warmly kiss the side of her neck while she wrapped her arms around his torso. Inwardly grinning as she yet again thanked the good work technicians in that factory in Zeiwan's capital city of Kutzei did when it came to crafting such an incredible machine as Hank Patterson, she blinked as her empathy picked up the presence of three wonderful friends she met a few hours ago on the National Mall. Grinning as she wondered what Hank's reaction would be to confronting THEM...!

"Samantha!" a voice called out. "What a cute titemam! You'll let us play with him, won't you?!"

Hank — who had been built to be a slender yet muscular boy of eighteen possessing thoroughly tanned skin, chestnut hair and dark brown eyes — blinked on hearing that odd voice, then he spun to his left...

...before his inner systems nearly suffered a cascade failure as he gaped in awe at three such PERFECT specimens of young manhood, all of them in their birthday suits and clearly ready to join in on the action if their erections said anything. As his mind registered the fact that the man in the centre of the strange group was _**Moroboshi Ataru**_ of all people — whom Hank had been programmed to hate, though he clearly didn't understand why he had to hate this person — he then blinked as a weird chain of logic began to form within his processors. One that was quickly making more and more sense thanks to his ultra-sharp hearing picking up the sounds of HEARTBEATS echoing from the three newcomers' bodies...

Samantha gasped as Hank leaned down to swamp her with a kiss that nearly sucked all the air out of her lungs. As they pulled apart, Hank nearly broke her spine with a hug as delighted tears flowed down his face. " _ **OH, SAM! THIS IS WONDERFUL! YOU HAVE BROTHERS TO MATE WITH!**_ "

Ataru, Soa and Wuke all fell flat on their faces! " _ **WHAT?!**_ " Samantha screamed out as she moved to shove him clear so she could breathe. " _ **WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!**_ "

"Don't you see?!" her lover answered as he waved over to their new guests. "They have to be _**male**_ Avalonians!" As the others in the room gaped, he added, "I knew our masters would discover the secret of making male Avalonians! Now you have proper lovers to mate with and even have children with...!"

"Um...excuse me!"

Hank looked left to see a giggling Soa get up, walking over to sit on the bed. "You're reading the script wrong!" the farmer's son then said. "We're not Avalonians. We're Yizibajohei from Nesetimtuto!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"Then why aren't you fighting?" Hank innocently asked, clearly not frightened by that particular revelation. "Yizibajohei males always engage in what they call 'fight scenes' whenever they confront each other. That's a known fact!" He then blinked. "Why are you here, anyway...?"

By then, both Wuke and Ataru were on their feet and moving to sit on the bed to the opposite side of Soa. "We're not Named. Not yet at least," Ataru stated as he wrapped an arm around Hank's shoulder while he tilted the android's head over so they could gaze into the other person's eyes. "If you wish to know, those like us prefer pillow scenes over fight scenes," he added before kissing Hank hard.

The android squawked before his own intimacy programming when it came to dealing with a male kicked in, then he pulled back from Samantha so he could give his full attention to Ataru. Noting that, Soa and Wuke moved to join in. "Ah, you just got to love a sentient titemam who understands the sanctity of a proper pillow scene!" the raven-haired Wuke meowed as his hand reached down to play with Hank's nexus as his blond best friend kissed the android's nipples. "Now let's have one big pillow scene to give our new friend here all the pillow scene dreams she would ever want!" he meowed.

As the three synthezoids went to work on her android "overseer", Samantha's cheeks reddened to the shade of ripe cherries at the sheer level of PASSION that was now being shown here. Much that she did care for Hank as a person, she never knew until now that he had been suffering in his own way as much as she had since they had been assigned together by their "master"; given the artificial nature of the Type 29G companion android's brain, the Terran-turned-Avalonian high school senior's telepathy couldn't scan him. Clearly, Ataru and his intimate friends — she knew that Soa and Wuke had been Tariko Katabarbe's first male lovers, they having popped each other's cherries three years ago in her wood cabin in the mountains above the large village of Kabe-koli — had a much greater understanding of what an android like Hank was really like...and were now more than willing to help him enjoy himself fully for the first time since he had been partnered with Samantha two years ago.

The high schooler then blinked as images started to flash inside her mind. Images of a very lush valley surrounded by what seemed to be an endless desert, where she — yes, this was the memories of a woman; _What's happening to me?!_ Samantha wondered — lived in a more innocent time.

Where said person had been regent crown princess of the most ancient civilization of the World of the Forge, a node of tranquility in an ever-churning sea of despotism as three-quarters of the third world of Kaeyu was plunged into a mad metahuman arms race that made what happened between the Liberty Legion and the Übermenschen Gruppe in World War Two seem like a spring tea party. How someone who understood how to touch the immortal soul of the planet showed her how to empower herself, becoming something that would be seen as a protecting angel over her subjects just as a holocaust worst than anything the Book of Revelations could equal overcame Numyuoleim...

Just as the most bloody dictator in Yiziba's history rose in nearby Damgatuto...

 _ **Tene lomher'buo, Samantha Julia Applegate...**_

Shocked gasps escaped her current companions as the memories of the life of such a wonderful and caring woman overcame Samantha, burning away whatever feeble links her "master" could still use against her. As a torrent of pure, raw POWER flooded every cell of her body, her inner eye to that which her ancestors on Sagussa called "Te'a" was overwhelmed by the sheer PHYSICAL might of the Atom of the Mind and the Soul, the core of the Primal Atom itself, flooding her...

" _ **Taeim letam...!**_ " the high schooler screamed as the room was inundated by blinding light.

 _ **Nesu...TUOR'BO!**_

Within seconds, the brilliance that marked Samantha's Gifting faded, allowing Ataru and the other boys to blink away the echoes of such light before they focused on the lone woman in the room...

"Okay," Ataru then quipped. " _ **That**_ happened!"

The other boys looked at him, then gazed once more on the Terran-turned-Avalonian- _ **turned-Yizibajohei**_ who was now the newest incarnation of the last princess of Numyuoleim…

* * *

 _ **Washington, an apartment on F Street NW (seven hundred metres east of the White House), after midnight on Tuesday...**_

"Good morning, _**Master**_...!"

A moan escaped the sickly coffee shop owner as his eyes opened...

...then he screamed in agony as a boot slammed into his crotch, nearly crushing his testicles as the light on his nightstand snapped on, blinding the man known to neighbours as "John Strohl" for a second.

"Time to start talking to me, 'Father'..."

Shuddering in agony at such a vicious blow, he then blinked. "Samantha...?"

"Yes...and no."

His head turned to allow him to gaze on his "foster daughter"...

...then he screamed in horror on seeing that his "robot" slave was dressed in the dark green jumpsuit — of a new, more racy design that fit over her well-shaped body like a skintight glove, leaving her shoulders and arms bare — with the sandy gold boots and belt and the ancient sacred Eye of Eternity symbol on her upper chest denoting she was now the True Noble of the Centre, _**Tuor'bo**_ (" _ **Princess**_ "), one of the most feared of all of They Who Must Never Be Named...!

What was worse, Samantha's android overseer was standing at the foot of the bed, clearly not bothered by the fact that she was about to deliver a cosmic beatdown on the man born Johnt dai-Strangh.

"As you can see," the transformed high school senior said as she leaned down to glare into his eyes, her knee crushing his privates to make him whimper, "...you're in no position to refuse me, rimrae umale!"

Strohl's mind instantly raced as detail about the battle line born from the last princess of Numyuoleim came to him — _Telepathic, clairvoyance, high-level FISS, charisma beyond any measure that could help her make even the_ **Archangel of Mortality** _listen to her, TWO THOUSAND YEARS of battle knowledge, mostly fought against her old rival who once was the dictator of Damgatuto, the_ **Dark General of the Centre** _...!_ — before he whimpered as he felt his bowels about to let go...

"Now," she purred. "Tell me about your OTHER 'foster daughters'. I want to know who they are..."

A scream escaped Strohl as he felt a powerful psionic probe smash into his soul...

 _ **The End...For Now!**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

This omake is set in the same time frame as Regina Magia's omake _Seeker_.

Translation list: **Eta** — Red pepper powder; **Titemam** — Android (literally "machine male"); **Reading the script wrong** — Yizibajohei euphemism stating that someone has made the wrong conclusion about something; **Kabe-koli** — Yizibajohei analogue of **Dodge City** in Kansas; **Numyuoleim** — Literally "temple of eternal creation", the analogue of **Egypt** ; **Damgatuto** — Literally "Country of the Damga", the analogue of **Uganda** ; **Te'a** — That Which Is Above mortal understanding.

 _The Senior Year_ character note: **Ōgi ot'ndai-Zkuhsbagh** first appeared in "What Price For Love?"

The **Type 29G** intimate companion android/gynoid was first introduced in _Long Way Home_.

The **Archangel of Mortality** was first introduced in the main story in Part 3. The **Dark General of the Centre** was first mentioned in the side-story _The Deadliest Woman Alive_.


	14. Reborn From the Deep

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the** _ **Copyright Act**_ **(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

 _ **Alnwick (ninety kilometres east of southeast from Edinburgh), the White Swan Hotel at 18-20 Bondgate Within, the Saturday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, two hours before supper (Tōkyō time: Sunday, an hour after midnight)...**_

"Bloody hell...can you believe something like THAT...?!"

A snort escaped one of the baker's dozen travellers now relaxing in the Olympic Suite of the old coachman hotel located close to the A1 motorway connecting London with Edinburgh. The people now enjoying either a pint or an early dinner at the White Swan had fallen silent when the BBC delivered an unbelievable news broadcast from Washington concerning the aftereffects of a potential alien attack on the capital city of Uruguay six hours before. An attack stopped by a strange metahuman who somehow had been created from the living soul of the famous Nazi "pocket battleship" _Admiral Graf Spee_...

...and now was alive as a lovely teenage woman named Margareta von Spee.

And she wasn't alone.

"Looks like the ruddy Japanese had it right all along," the man who nasally objected to the bartender's exclamation when it came to seeing "shipgirls" who had been introduced to the world at the White House an hour before noted as he leaned his chin on his propped hand, elbow on the bar.

"What do you mean?" another guest asked from a nearby table.

"People in Japan believe that all things that exist have some sort of divine spirit," the first man noted. "When you consider that sailors have always believed ships had their own living spirits within them..."

Others in hearing range nodded as some of the younger ones got out their cell phones and began passing on messages through social media concerning what they saw on the news. "Wouldn't it be a right ruddy thing if the _Titanic_ ever came back as a shipgirl like that destroyer girl the little lady from Japan introduced to the media just before Bartlet came in to tell everyone about Captain von Spee?" a secretary then asked. "Since the spirits of the dead seem to like the idea of shipgirls..."

"Wonder what relatives of the dead would say..."

The bartender's voice was cut off as he took note of the walls, ceilings and all the furnishings around him — which had been removed from the first of the Olympic-class liners after her final withdrawal of service during the middle years of the Great Depression — beginning to glow a strange silver shade. "What the devil...?" a policeman enjoying an afternoon tea nearby demanded as people stood...

...before a chorus of shocked screams and panicked wails echoed from outside, making the constable surge out of his chair and race out the front door onto Bondgate Within...

...to find himself covered by a VERY big shadow overhead.

Looking up, he gaped on seeing the rust-red keel of a long yet slender ship, it fitted with three bronze propellers and a single rudder at the aft end, floating quite serenely a couple hundred feet above the street, said craft now encompassed in a large bubble of reddish-silver energy. As passers-by pointed up to the ship while shouting questions to each other, the policeman shook his head.

"Better not be some bloody magical doing this," he hissed before pulling out his walkie-talkie...

 _ **Tene lomher'buo, Sarah Helen Smith...!**_

That made the constable jerk as he recalled what a certain native of Niigata said on the news concerning how the bizarre concept of "Gifting" when it came to a newly-chosen member of the race now living on the planet where the famous Power Jewels had been forged billions of years before.

"'It is time'..." he muttered. "But who the hell is Miss Smith...?!"

" _ **IT'S THE**_ **TITANIC** _ **!**_ "

Hearing one fisherman across the street scream out, the policeman looked up...

...then gaped in shock on seeing the vessel turn in the air to align her bow to the south, revealing a familiar silhouette that had been burned into the minds of people across the world for over a century...

"My dear God...!" the officer cursed as something dropped down from a warp in the sky to hover between the second and third funnels of the passenger liner whose first class dining lounge fittings had been obtained by the White Swan Hotel nearly eight decades before...

...just as the physical mass of 52,900 tonnes of steel, wood and other elements which had been pulled from multiple places across Great Britain to be merged together as they had been originally built at Harland and Wolff in Belfast from 1908-11 then collapsed on itself, the something that had been floating between the midships funnels morphing into the shape of a human girl.

"Bloody hell...!" the voice of the bartender exclaimed from next to the officer as the radiance from the transforming passenger liner of old overhead became too bright for anyone to directly look upon.

 _ **Nesu...DUSEM!**_

Silence then fell over the scene...

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then...?

"Um...could I possibly trouble someone for a drink?"

The policeman — who, like all the people that had just watched this, covered his eyes when the Gifting had begun and the reborn Edwardian Era liner was given new life as a shipgirl — turned to look...before he boggled at the sight of what was now standing not metres ahead of him.

"Er...right, then..." he muttered before keying his walkie-talkie.

People gazed at him as he called to headquarters to alert superiors concerning what just happened, then they turned to gaze on the blushing twenty-something blue-eyed brunette tomboy in the sky blue jumpsuit with White Star Line buff gold boots — said boots with the outer flap painted black in reflection of how funnels of ships run by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company were painted — and belt that matched what the German schiffsmädchen wore when they visited the White House on the news; the belt buckle bore the red swallowtail house flag of the White Star Line. Atop that, there were pendant numbers **A400** in gold on her upper thighs and a ship's crest on her chest displaying **OLYMPIC** in gold on black, that over the image of Mount Olympus rising from a heraldic sea of white and blue on a sky blue background, the mountain top partially obscured with a laurel crown in White Star gold.

"Dreadfully sorry about this!" the blushing Sarah Smith declared...

* * *

 _ **The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_ **Omake:** _ **Reborn From the Deep  
**_ by Regina Magia

Based on characters and situations from _Kantai Collection_ , created by Kadokawa Games.

* * *

 _ **In the North Atlantic Ocean at the edge of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, near position 41°44' N, 49°57' W, the Sunday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, an hour before supper (London time: Two hours after supper)...**_

"Just think...!" Professor William Burns noted as the pilot of the DSV-4 _Sea Cliff_ shifted controls to allow the twenty-five tonne craft to lift off from the disturbed sandy floor of the ocean near where the bow section of the world's most famous shipwreck now rested, the relatively intact prow of the second of the Olympic-class passenger liners angled to the north-northeast with the shattered stern section inverted from the other side over half a kilometre away. "Tomorrow, we'll all be on our way back home," the tenured oceanographer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod then finished.

"'Bout time," escaped Professor Clive Morin, a maritime archaeologist from the University of Toronto who was co-head of this latest expedition to discover the many secrets still entombed within RMS _Titanic_ 's hull. "God! I've missed being back around Queen's Park!" As the two others in _Sea Cliff_ chuckled at that comment, the native of Mississauga west of Ontario's capital city added, "Believe me, I can't wait to get back to civilization! Much that I love to explore lost places..."

"It gets boring after a bit," Burns finished for his co-worker.

"Neither can I," pilot Liáng Fēihóng noted as he gazed out the portal at the darkening rusticle-covered bow of the ship his guests' famous co-worker Robert Ballard discovered in 1985; while he was doing so, he keyed controls to jettison diving weights that had allowed _Sea Cliff_ to descend from its mothership RV _Atlantis_ quite rapidly. "Poor Cháiměi hasn't been the same since Katie's accident." As the scientists grimaced on hearing that, the Hong Kong native who had fled to America with his wife prior to the old British colony's return to Chinese control muttered, "I just hope she wakes up soon."

Burns gave a nod of sympathy as Morin reached over to squeeze the adopted Bostonian's shoulder. Katie Liáng Cháizhì had been in a car crash on Interstate 495 near Middleborough several months ago when returning from a week of studying at Harvard; she had been comatose since then. Fortunately, the doctors at the Boston Medical Centre were strongly convinced that Katie stood a good chance of recovery. Still, the absence of their only child was emotionally tearing both Liáng and his wife apart.

Silence fell inside the diving compartment as _Sea Cliff_ began the two hour ascent back to the surface and _Atlantis_. Shutting down outside lights to conserve power, Liáng made a call up to the mothership to inform them of their status. Getting the all-clear from a technician monitoring their ascent, he sat back, allowing himself to join the conversation between Burns and Morin about recent events.

Sure enough, what happened in an infamous suburb of Tōkyō nearly thirty-six hours before and the many world-shaking ramifications of same came up...

"...see that press conference at the White House yesterday morning, Bill?" Morin wondered as he looked at his co-researcher. "Hard to believe that the _**soul**_ of the very forge that created General Raeburn's Power Jewel could actually seek out the souls of _warships_ to make them become _**human**_."

"Saw it. Couldn't believe it..." — here, the native of Hartford shook his head before a wry smile crossed his face — "...until Captain von Bismarck described what happened to her as she was pounded to pieces by the British before she sank. It was almost exactly as Bob theorized her sinking went when he found her in '89." Here, Burns shuddered as he remembered the look of pain that crossed the face of a certain adopted native of Schönhausen as she described how her stern, main gun turrets and most of her superstructure had been sheared off her hull in that nearly five-kilometre descent to the bottom of the Celtic Sea still many hundreds of kilometres from safety in occupied France. "Can't believe that the instant people learned about shipgirls, the first one they said they wanted back was _Arizona_."

The others inside the submersible nodded. While they had been busy on the floor of the Atlantic poking around _Titanic_ 's shattered hull, the news had been relayed to them from WHOI via _Atlantis_ that the living spirit of America's most tragic battleship had been restored not an hour before at Pearl Harbour, getting the human named "Sonia Owings". "Wouldn't it be weird?" Liáng then wondered.

"What do you mean, Fēi?" Burns asked.

"If the spirit of the _Titanic_ decided to come back?" the Hong Kong native asked.

The scientists exchange looks. "Is it possible?" Morin wondered. "I mean, despite the numbers who died when she went down, _Titanic_ was a civilian passenger liner, not a battleship like _Bismarck_..."

 _ **...MGY, MGY, this is MKC! I'm transmitting in the clear! Can you hear me...?  
**_  
All three perked on hearing that voice echo through _Sea Cliff_. "What was THAT?!" Burns demanded.

"Wait!"

The two Americans gazed on their friend from Canada. "What is it?" Liáng asked.

Morin blinked as his mind ran through the knowledge he had concerning _Titanic_ and everything involved with her. "'MKC' was _Olympic_ 's call-sign over the wireless!" he then declared. "'MGY' is _Titanic_...!"

Both Liáng and Burns gaped before the former reached for his radio to signal to the surface. " _Atlantis_ , this is _Sea Cliff_ ," he called out. "Be advised, we're overhearing some verbal signal passing through the hull, transmission point unknown. Sounds like a woman, mixed Irish and English accents..."

"And she's using a call sign for a ship that was scrapped in the 1930s," the voice of the man who had co-led the expedition that discovered _Titanic_ 's wreckage twenty-seven years before called back over the radio from the main control room of the naval oceanographic research ship over three kilometres above their heads. "We heard it as well, people. Bridge watch is trying to see if we have an incoming shipgirl flying in. Keep ascending, Fēi. You're well off _Titanic_ 's starboard beam..."

"...so if it starts happening to her, we won't be run over," the pilot finished.

"You got it," Robert Ballard affirmed...

* * *

 _ **Aboard the RV**_ **Atlantis** _ **, minutes later...**_

"Commander?"

The balding native of Kansas who was seen these days as the most famous maritime archaeologist alive perked at someone addressing him with his old United States Navy rank, then he looked over. He had come up from the main diving control space to the pilotage, hoping to spot something that he NEVER in all his years of research work believed he would ever encounter. Of course, since it was well past sunset, seeing anything even with calm seas...! "What is it, Chief?"

"Sir, we got three radar contacts now approaching us, bearing zero-eight-two, distance four-eight-zero nautical miles from us, approach speed one-zero-zero knots. Holding arrowhead formation, altitude five-zero feet above MSL. All human-size," the Naval Reserve operations specialist chief petty officer now manning _Atlantis_ ' excellent suite of radar equipment declared as he looked at Robert Ballard. "By the looks of this, they're heading right to where _Titanic_ signalled she was sinking back in 1912, sir."

"And if one of those girls is _Olympic_...?" the ship's master mused from his chair.

"Who are the others?" the first mate asked.

Ballard hummed. "Let's find out." He reached over to pick up the microphone for the short-range navigation radio, then he clicked the speaker. "MKC, MKC, this is KAQP! Do you hear me, MKC?!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"Wrong frequency?" the master wondered...

 _ **I hear you, KAQP! This is MKC! Do you have contact with MGY?**_

Everyone's jaws dropped in total disbelief on hearing that; the strange woman's voice had echoed loud and clear over the bridge. As surprised voices emanated from both outside the pilotage and through the hatchways to other compartments, the chief manning the radar gaped. "Holy SHIT...!"

"It's really...?!" the first mate exclaimed.

"Pipe down!" the master snapped. He then gazed on the expedition leader. "Bob?"

Ballard blinked, then he gazed out to the east. Too much darkness and still too far away if what the ship's radar had indicated. "All outside lights, on! NOW!" he then barked. "Let's give them something they can see so they can approach us and come down on the deck!"

People immediately leapt to action...

 _ **KAQP, this is MKC! I say again, do you have contact with MGY?**_

The microphone was clicked back on. "MKC, this is KAQP. Negative on contact with MGY. We've got you on radar..." Ballard then caught himself, remembering the concept of radar used on civilian vessels came into vogue several years after _Olympic_ had gone to the breakers. "I hope you understand that..."

 _ **A wireless wave system that allows ships to spot each other beyond what a lookout could see?**_

That made the bridge crew gape. "How on Earth did you...?" Ballard nearly stammered.

An amused titter seemed to chime through _Atlantis_ ' hull in response. _**One of my current companions told me about the concept, KAQP. Not to mention that nice constable that was in Alnwick when I was literally rebuilt, then turned into a living WOMAN of all things yesterday!**_ As the crew on the research ship's bridge nodded in understanding, that voice then asked with its mixture of Ulster Irish and Northumbria English, _ **Who exactly do I have the pleasure of speaking with right now?**_

That made the marine archaeologist blink. "Robert Ballard. Commander, United States Navy, retired..."

A teenage squeal that nearly shattered everyone's eardrums then blared through the bridge, making people wince as many covered their ears. _**OHMIGOD! OHMIGOD! OIMIGOD! OHMIGOD! IT'S PROFESSOR BALLARD! HE'S THE ONE WHO FOUND TITANIC, OLYMPIC...!**_

 _ **Good God, Nomadic! Pipe down!**_ the first voice snapped back.

"' _Nomadic_ '?!" the _Atlantis_ ' master demanded.

" _Titanic_ 's and _Olympic_ 's tender based in Cherbourg," Ballard explained before keying the mike. "Ma'am, could you ask your friend to go easy when she transmits out, please? That nearly deafened us all!"

 _ **Wouldn't bloody surprise me if you all went deaf on hearing that, Professor!**_ the voice of the being that was now approaching the _Atlantis_ noted, her annoyance at such behaviour quite obvious. _**She put out enough signal to blank out every damned wireless in the Atlantic, I'll strongly wager!**_

 _ **Er...sorry about that...!**_ the voice of the tender _Nomadic_ made human cut in apologetically, her voice having a mixture of Ulster Irish and Norman French, representing her place of construction in Belfast and her long time place of work at Cherbourg on the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy.

 _ **...CQD, CQD...**_

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

A visibly-stunned Ballard clicked on his mike; that voice had the same Irish burr the living spirit of the first Olympic-class liners made human possessed, but it was mixed with what sounded like a _**Canadian**_ type of English accent. "Unknown vessel, this is KAQP!" he called out as others on the bridge exchanged incredulous looks. "We're receiving your CQD at this time! Identify, please!"

 _ **...CQD...MGY...41°44' N 50°24' W...**_

"Holy fucking SHIT...!" the first mate exclaimed...

* * *

 _ **Aboard the**_ **Sea Cliff** _ **, approximately 400 metres off the sea bed, that moment...**_

 _ **...CQD...MGY...41°44' N 50°24' W...**_

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"Ngóh dīk tīn...!" Liáng Fēihóng gasped in his native Cantonese before he demanded, "Is that...?"

"My God...!" William Burns breathed out as he exchanged a disbelieving look with Clive Morin.

 _ **...CQD...CQD...SOS...MGY...41°44' N 50°24' W...Require immediate assistance...Come at once...We struck an iceberg...**_

"Microphone!" Burns then barked.

Liáng handed it over. Clicking the mike, the Hartford native called out, "MGY, MGY, this is DSV-4! We read your CQD and SOS. Note that MKC is currently moving towards your position. Reply, please?!"

"Should we be doing this, Bill?" Morin hissed.

The American marine geologist shook his head. "What are the rules, Clive?"

Hearing that, the native of Mississauga blinked before he nodded.

 _ **...CQD...CQD...wait...!**_

All three men in the submersible tensed.

 _ **...I...dear God, I've...!**_

Liáng turned as pale as a ghost. "She's fully woken!"

"Oh, my God...!" Morin groaned.

"Scan the wreckage!" Burns barked out. "If she's going to transform..."

 _ **...I...I...I...I SANK...!**_

 _ **Calm down, Eleanor! Even if you sank, you can come back!**_

The three men inside _Sea Cliff_ exchanged looks. "'Eleanor'...?!"

 _ **...Olympic...?**_

 _ **Yes! It's me...but call me Sarah! I'm coming to you! Nomadic and Britannic are with me! Focus on our voices! Focus on us and you can make yourself come back! You can do it, Eleanor...!**_

"That must be her human name," Morin concluded before he snapped his fingers as something came back to him, then he gazed on Burns. "Right! Sarah Smith was Captain Smith's wife, Bill! Her middle name was Eleanor. When it comes to non-Japanese ships, Moroboshi Ataru always strives to select names that match a ship's first captain or her namesake; that's why Captain von Bismarck got the given names 'Wilhelmina Luisa'. And since Captain Smith commanded both _Olympic_ and _Titanic_..."

 _ **I'm named after the CAPTAIN?!**_

That voice with its mixed Irish and Canadian accents was now sharp and clear. Unseen by the three people aboard _Sea Cliff_ , a deep reddish glow reflected in the portholes from somewhere below the submersible. Burns moved to key his mike before he stopped himself, then he relaxed. "Ms...?" He stopped himself again, remembering one other detail from that press conference in the White House. "Commander Smith, is this something your crew and passengers want?" he then asked.

Silence.

 _ **I...!**_

 _ **Please! Come back, sister! We can sail together like Mister Ismay wanted us to do!**_

More silence.

That new voice made the three exchange looks again. The accents were different: Ulster Irish...and Cretan-Cycladian _**Greek**_?! And considering the extra names mentioned by the reborn _Olympic_ earlier...!

"' _Britannic_ '?" Liáng quietly wondered.

"Most likely," Morin breathed out.

 _ **Britannic...?**_

 _ **Yes! I'm Charlene now! And Nomadic's here, too; she's Gwenaëlle! Please! Come back!**_

 _ **But...!**_

Still more silence.

 _ **I say old man, do you know there is a batch of messages coming through for you from MCC...?**_

Then...

Burns clicked his microphone. "DSV-4, DSV-4 to unknown ship signalling to MGY at this time," he called out in a firm voice. "Is this MPA? Confirm, please!"

"'MPA'?" Liáng hissed.

Morin winked...

 _ **Carpathia...?**_

That made the three men in the submersible chuckle. That unknown voice had a mixture of Northumbria English similar to what the reborn _Olympic_ was effectively using at this time...with what Liáng was strongly willing to bet was some dialect of _**Hungarian**_! "Damn! The whole gang's here...!"

 _ **You're coming...!**_

Suddenly, _Sea Cliff_ seemed to shake as the water around her began to bubble ominously.

"Tāa māa dīk...!" Liáng hissed.

 _ **Tene lomher'buo, Eleanor Catherine Smith...**_

Morin closed his eyes. "It's begun..."

* * *

 _ **On the**_ **Atlantis** _ **...**_

"Holy shit, Professor! Look at that!"

Robert Ballard was now in the main diving control compartment, gazing at a very accurate 3D enhanced sonar picture of the sea floor almost four kilometres down; said technology had been seeded to Woods Hole thanks to a teenage polymath hyper-genius from a small town near Los Angeles who had long been fascinated with the professor's work in marine archaeology. Privately thanking Elizabeth Wakefield for her under-the-table contributions to his research, the native of Kansas reached over to tap the touch screen to turn the angle of "view" to a profile of the _Titanic_ wreck site. "Oh, my God...!"

The technician noisily exhaled, shaking his head. "Well, you've always been worried about people coming to damage the site, sir..." he mused. "By the looks of THAT, there'll be no more worries...!"

"Yeah..." Ballard trilled as he focused on what was happening far below.

With an icon marking the _Sea Cliff_ off to one side and ascending smartly from the ocean floor, both men — not to mention the other technicians and personnel in the room, watching everything thanks to bulkhead-mounted monitor screens — gazed as _Titanic_ 's thoroughly demolished stern was lifted by some unseen force off the sea floor. As other technicians used their own monitors to get different views of what was happening, all the scattered debris that had been torn away by multiple forces as the liner split in two and sank back in 1912 began to elevate, surging towards the rising stern section to fuse together again with it. Seeing that over hundred metre-long section of hull literally REBUILD itself — complete with the aft two funnels, the mainmast and the various hull plates, decks and other elements of the ship going right back into place — another technician behind Ballard whistled. "Damn! That's the total reverse of what Mister Cameron and his friends predicted she went down!"

Ballard nodded...before he perked. "There goes the bow!"

People in the room whooped in delight as the forward half of the most famous passenger liner in history was pulled out of the deep rut it made in the sea bed, surging up towards the now-twirling stern section. Just as said bow passed by the slowly-ascending _Sea Cliff_ , said submersible began to rise up in equal pace to the larger hull section. "Damn!" Ballard snapped before he grabbed a microphone from the neighbouring desk, keying it immediately. " _Sea Cliff_ , this is _Atlantis_...!"

"We're okay, Bob!" William Burns called back from still over three kilometres below the surface of the ocean. "We just got caught in the energy field that formed around the bow as it moved past us."

"Ship's integrity's not affected," Liáng Fēihóng added. "I guess we can just sit back and enjoy the ride!"

Ballard considered that for a moment as laughter echoed over the speakers. He then keyed the microphone. "MGY, MGY, this is KAQP! Are you rendering assistance to DSV-4 at this time?"

Silence.

 _ **I...oh! Dreadfully sorry...!**_

"Some sort of reverse hydrostatic pressure, Professor?" one technician asked.

 _ **Professor...?**_

More silence.

 _ **Professor Ballard, I presume?**_

Ballard blinked before he smiled. "I am he, Commander Smith."

Still more silence.

 _ **HE'S THE ONE WHO FOUND YOU, TITANIC! DON'T YOU KNOW HIM?!**_

 _ **PIPE DOWN, NOMADIC!**_

Hearing the screaming voice of the reborn _Nomadic_ before the reborn _Olympic_ cut her off, people in the control room laughed...before one technician pointed at a screen. "There! She's coming together!"

People turned to their screens before a wild cheer erupted from some of the technicians as _Titanic_ fused back together at around a kilometre below the surface. Long disintegrated steel cable lines appeared to reform the guy wires between the foremast and mainmast, not to mention other parts of her rigging. Save for the lifeboats — the only parts of the passenger liner that survived the sinking — the second of the Olympic-class ships looked as it the day she had been completed at Harland and Wolff's Belfast yards a hundred years ago in the early spring. "Wish we had the means to see what's going on inside her when this sort of thing happens," the technician beside Ballard mused.

"Well, if what happened to _Graf Spee_ and _Arizona_ show anything to us, the interior would be totally rebuilt to the way it was when she was finished," Ballard mused, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "Any parts of the ship that have disintegrated since her sinking would reform back. Pity that whatever lifeforms had appeared in and around her hull since her sinking have no home now..."

"Commander!"

The native of Kansas looked forward. "What is it?!"

The _Atlantis_ ' master was leaning into the room as footfalls echoed from outside, that accompanied by urgent shouting. "We've got that same type of red bubble that formed around _Arizona_ and _Graf Spee_ when they were Gifted appearing on the surface! It's off the port bow, about a hundred yards off!"

Nodding, Ballard moved to exit the room. All the technicians exchanged looks as they wondered what to do now, then one quickly surged to his feet. "I'm not missing THIS!"

The others whooped as they left their stations to follow Ballard out onto the open deck...

* * *

 _ **Approaching the**_ **Atlantis** _ **from the east, about thirty metres above the waves...**_

" _ **THERE!**_ "

Delighted whoops escaped Charlene Smith-Bartlett and Gwenaëlle Laniece as the cluster of lights indicating RV _Atlantis_ finally came into view before the reborn White Star ships, then Sarah Smith pushed herself on a slight descent towards the surface of the relatively calm seas the equivalent of ten decks below her feet. Thinking on that made the adopted native of Belfast and Alnwick smile. Learning how to fly had been easy in the long term. On hearing the news of her rebirth as a shipgirl via the BBC, a young East End orphan named Yorick Garvey came to Alnwick to meet the transformed _Olympic_ and introduce her to things that seemed straight out of the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.

Along with learning of her adopted home planet of Yiziba and how "civilization" effectively ran itself on the third world of Kaeyu came some very vital flying lessons.

Remembering the wiry-haired dark-skinned chap who was known among the people on the World of the Forge as the Power of Legions, _**Byator'be-mimtumim**_ (" _ **Centennial**_ "), Sarah hoped she could get things done with her second sister just in time to get back to England and help Yorick and his friends from the Gashleycrumb Children's House deal with their cruel headmaster and criminally ignorant staff.

Learning that yet AGAIN, the fool magicals who had hidden themselves from the real world for centuries had decided to stick their noses in the business of normal loyal subjects of the Crown...!

"Ah! There! Just three points off her bow, Sarah!"

Sarah's head snapped over at Charlene's shout, then her eyes widened in delight on seeing a long, slender opaque red bubble of energy serenely rise up from the waters of the Atlantic, at least a hundred yards away from _Atlantis_...which, to the eyes of the once-largest ship in the world, was not even a THIRD of the length of an Olympic-class liner. Given how fragile the American naval reserve research ship also appeared to be to Sarah's weathered eyes, if the water surging away from her sister's hull as she finally broke the surface after a century at the bottom of the Atlantic grew too great...!

"Bloody hell...!"

"What?!" a wide-eyed Gwenaëlle demanded.

Sarah gazed back at her transformed tender, who now appeared to be in her mid-teens, possessing a lean and weathered look marking her decades of service in Cherbourg despite the quite overwhelmingly cute cant of her face, which was framed with chocolate brown hair done in a bobcut, the face pierced with forest green eyes. Like Sarah and her sister, Gwenaëlle was dressed in a modern form-fitting sleeveless jumpsuit used by most Named metahumans on Yiziba, coloured in reflection of the French tricolour white with blue to her right and red to her left, the black-over-White Star buff bold boots and buff gold belt with the house flag on the buckle completing the ensemble. A Royal Navy ship's crest was on her chest, displaying an image of a Romani wagon with horse on a heraldic sea. Like Sarah, Gwenaëlle had a pendant on her upper legs in white, **A422**. "Get down there to protect that ship from the wave surge that's going to rise once Eleanor comes up, Gwenaëlle! They'll be swamped!"

Hearing that, Gwenaëlle gasped, then quickly flew ahead of Sarah and Charlene, diving right for the ocean surface close to _Atlantis_. Watching the tender — who had transformed into a shipgirl within an hour of Sarah's transformation after sensing it in her Belfast dry dock — the last of the Olympic-class liners and the one who never served with her parent company shook her head. "Too eager, Sarah..."

"It's just like Mister Garvey warned us, Charlene," Sarah stated as she gave her blonde, blue-eyed sister an amused look. "Metahumans learn better from their mistakes and losses than their victories."

The former hospital ship — who had herself become a shipgirl six hours after her elder sister's rebirth thanks to the wonders of the BBC World Service, which had been picked up by a fishing boat rented by a London banker that had sailed over her wreck site near Kéa — shook her head. Like Sarah and Gwenaëlle, Charlene was in a fighting jumpsuit, though it was coloured white overall with the two-tone White Star boots and a green belt around her waist, the Red Cross prominent on her belt buckle and upper thighs in reflection of her wartime pain job; her pendant number **A433** was written in green just above the crucifixes on her legs. Her ship's crest was a heraldic ocean scene with the shield of Britannia, that embossed with a white globe topped with the Red Cross, that framed by a green wreath of laurel. Given that she served as a hospital vessel in her brief life as a ship, Charlene had gained touch-healing powers atop her considerable FISS capabilities in her Gifting; on being told how such physical strength worked with shipgirls, Sarah boggled at the fact that she could literally dead-lift the mass of over a HUNDRED BILLION TONNES without hurting herself! Because of that, Charlene would be protected and respected far much more among Yizibajohei than she would have been as a ship, especially in the latter years of the Great War. Sarah vividly recalled what happened to the Canadian-manned hospital ship HMHS _Llandovery Castle_ not even five months prior to the end of the war when it was torpedoed by submarine SM _U-86_ off the coast of Ireland, with almost all its crew and patients lost. Yorick told Sarah and Gwenaëlle that if a healer on Yiziba was EVER attacked, even the most selfish heel would come to said healer's defence and the fight scene that followed would be BRUTAL...!

" _ **SHE'S COME UP!**_ " Charlene then screamed in delight.

Sarah's eyes snapped over just as the mainmast of _Titanic_ broke the surface, a red swallowtail flag appearing as if by magic at the top of the halyard, said flag embossed by a beautiful white star...

* * *

 _ **On the RV**_ **Atlantis** _ **...**_

"Oh, my God...!"

Grateful to whatever power was currently protecting the research ship from being swamped by the surge of water being forced away from the rising hull of the _Titanic_ as she seemed to settle herself at the waterline, Robert Ballard could only shake his head in wonder as he watched the transformed _Nomadic_ fly to the just-surfaced _Sea Cliff_ and help push the submersible back to her mothership. Standing beside the retired Navy commander on the exposed forecastle before the superstructure, the master of the _Atlantis_ was busy talking on a portable headset to the director of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System which managed all American naval reserve research ships, who was located at the University of Rhode Island's oceanographic graduate school in Narragansett. As the glowing ruby mesonium-charged bubble surrounding the just-restored liner seemed to solidify for a moment before the space warp bringing in the synthetic battle doll body for the woman soon to be called "Eleanor Smith" appeared between the second and third funnel, the native of Kansas took a deep breath, his mixed feelings concerning something like this making his stomach churn.

For the longest time, he had loudly protested as publicly as possible against people going forth to loot shipwrecks for whatever reason. In cases like RMS _Titanic_ and KMS _Bismarck_ , shipwrecks ultimately symbolized massive losses of life in a singular incident. When the former went down, 1,517 people died that very cold April morning; the latter lost 2,107 after she had been hounded down by the Royal Navy one gale-swept May morning, tragically still far from safety. And while warships were almost always seen as war graves never to be violated — Ballard had often shaken his head in complete disgust at reports of illegal salvagers pulling up steel from sunken warships in the East Indies over the last decade and more — a civilian passenger liner, even the _**Titanic**_ of all ships, was a different kettle of fish!

Remembering the work Premier Exhibitions had done with artifacts taken from the ship since 1987...!

He was shaken out of his contemplation by the high-shrill whistling noise of air being displaced by a human body, making him spin around to look...

"Ah! Bloody made it THIS time!"

...then he gaped on seeing a twenty-something woman appearing to be a little over five feet tall standing a metre back from him. She had short-cropped fiery red hair in a shaggy halo around her sea-worn Slavic-shaped face, said face pierced with dark brown eyes. Dressed in the VERY recognizable sleeveless jumpsuit pattern worn by most Named Yizibajohei after their Gifting, she wore a light blue uniform with gold belt; on her upper thighs were written the pendant number **A274** in gold. Her boots were coloured the same way funnels of ships of the Cunard Line were painted: The outer flap was black while the main boot was red with three equidistant black lines wrapped horizontally around the calf and ankle. On her chest was her ship's crest, displaying a heraldic sea of light blue and gold, the whole embossed by a red bear. And on the name plate below the corona navalis that topped all Commonwealth warships' badges was a gold word on a blue field: **CARPATHIA**.

He turned around and calmly saluted her. "Commander...?"

His hail made other people on the deck stop and turn to gaze on the newcomer as she straightened herself to attention, returning the professor's courtesy. "Commander Nancy Rostron, Royal Naval Reserve, assigned now to Her Majesty's Specialized Warfare Fencibles, at your service, Professor Ballard," the adopted native of Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England responded before offering her hand. As several of the onlookers immediately used cell phones to get pictures of the transformed _Carpathia_ , she added, "Not used to flying THAT fast since I came back to life as this."

"I assume it was well before Commander Smith — the _Olympic_ , I mean — was transformed yesterday in Alnwick," Ballard noted as he shook her hand while some of the onlookers made room for Nancy to approach the gunwale that framed the forecastle deck to see what was happening with _Titanic_.

"About a month ago, after some Hun destroyer came back in the North Sea," Nancy stated as the just-arrived battle doll that would house the living spirit of the _Titanic_ began to brightly glow in the darkness.

"Lieselotte Maaß, Bob," the _Atlantis_ ' master concluded. "She was at the White House when President Bartlet introduced Captain von Spee, Captain von Bismarck and the other old German ships..."

"Holy...!" one sailor then gasped.

People spun around as the bubbles of energy framing the rebuilt Titanic and the battle doll merged, creating a corona of pure light that made the late evening night on the Atlantic seem like high noon...

 _ **Nesu...TYUGAKATO!**_

Cries of delight boomed from _Atlantis_ ' crew as the transformation was complete...

...then people gasped on hearing a voice yelp in fright, making eyes snap open...

" _ **GOT YOU!**_ "

As the energy that marked the transformation of _Titanic_ into Eleanor Smith faded, people spun to look...

...then a wild cheer escaped the onlookers on seeing the newly-transformed shipgirl now being held aloft by two women who looked to be Eleanor's identical twin sisters...even if the obviously younger of the pair — the transformed HMHS _Britannic_ , Ballard immediately realized — had blonde hair similar to Elizabeth Wakefield's, no doubt influenced thanks to her long work in the Mediterranean Sea in the First World War. As the _Sea Cliff_ was finally secured alongside _Atlantis_ to Ballard's left — its crew hatch was now open as three grinning men were being helped aboard the mothership by a smiling Gwenaëlle Laniece...even if they had stopped to witness _Titanic_ 's transformation — the first and last of their class of liners then calmly drifted over to land on the research ship's weather deck. Of course, as was proper, they stopped before actually landing. "Permission to come aboard?" Sarah Smith then hailed.

The _Atlantis_ ' master laughed as he saluted them. "Permission granted, Commanders..." — here, he focused on Charlene Smith-Bartlett, his eyes twinkling — "...and Surgeon Commander," he added.

That made the former hospital ship madly blush. "'S-s-Surgeon Commander'...?!"

Laughter echoed over the scene as Sarah and Charlene pushed themselves forward to land, allowing Eleanor to settle down on something other than water or the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for the first time since she was launched at Belfast a century before. As cell phones and tablets came out to record the scene, Ballard took a moment to take in the transformed _Titanic_ 's uniform. It was emerald green overall with a belt in White Star buff gold around her waist, her house flag on the buckle shining in the evening lights. Her pendant number **A401** — which actually matched her yard number at Harland and Wolff, the professor then realized on seeing Sarah's and Charlene's pendants — was in gold on her thighs. Her boots were the same pattern as her sisters': White Star buff gold overall with a black outer flap to match how her funnels had been coloured. Her ship's crest bore the name in gold on a black field, the main part of the badge showing the mythical titan Atlas holding up an iceberg from a heraldic sea of white and blue on a midnight black background dotted in stars; no doubt, this symbolized the "night to remember" as Walter Lord titled his famous 1955 book concerning _Titanic_ 's sinking.

" _ **ELEANOR!**_ "

Everyone turned...

...then laughter exploded from the crowd as a grinning Gwenaëlle speared Eleanor with a hug that could crush a boulder. As the just-transformed liner nearly fell on her butt from the tender's embrace, a roaring cheer escaped the onlookers...which melted into applause as the transformed _Titanic_ tenderly smiled while allowing the transformed _Nomadic_ to hold her close. As the just-arrived shipgirls blushed, Ballard came forward, drawing the attention of Eleanor and her sisters. Silence then fell as people exchanged looks, then Eleanor gently shifted Gwenaëlle away from him before walking over, hand out.

"Professor Ballard, I presume?" the adopted native of Belfast asked.

The marine archaeologist/retired intelligence officer blinked, then gently took her hand in his. "Yes," he replied as his eyes twinkled. "I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you, Commander Smith."

Eleanor's dark brown eyes shined at that replay of the encounter between David Livingstone and Henry Morgan Stanley in Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the autumn of 1871. As both Sarah and Charlene applauded and Gwenaëlle screamed in delight, the reborn _Titanic_ then shuddered as she walked into the embrace of the man who found her wreck in the late summer of 1985, delighted tears spilling down her face as she found herself whispering, "Thank you, Robert...thank you so much...!"

Ballard found himself on the verge of breaking down in turn as the people around them began to cheer and applaud anew. "Welcome back, Eleanor..." he whispered back.

Hearing the delight of the people who had come out with this man on this voyage of discovery, Eleanor shuddered before she found herself staring at the three men who had manned _Sea Cliff_ just before she was Gifted. Pulling away from Ballard, she walked over to warmly embrace William Burns, which made the native of Hartford blush before she let him go, then she hugged both Clive Morin and Liáng Fēihóng. The cheers from the people seeing this kept on coming as she turned and saluted the _Atlantis_ ' master before shaking his hand, then she remained still as people pulled out strange small rectangular things to take PICTURES of her. While her cheeks flamed from the oncoming adulation, she then blinked on seeing the stout woman in the light blue jumpsuit standing nearby. Noting the name on her beautiful ship's crest, Eleanor nearly cried out in sheer joy before she caught herself.

After all, she was a lady of the Edwardian Era!

That sort of act wasn't proper!

Especially in _**public**_...!

 _ **Oh, go on, girl! She was there for us, remember?!**_

Perking on hearing the ghostly voice of a socialite and philanthropist from Denver who had been there to motivate those in Lifeboat No. 6 that cold evening, Eleanor smirked before she lunged over to swamp Nancy Rostron with an enveloping embrace strong enough to shatter Everest! As the transformed _Carpathia_ squawked in understandable embarrassment from such an act despite all the onlookers screaming in delight on seeing the two finally reunite after over a century, Eleanor pulled back.

"Glad you made it on time, old man!" she then teased.

Nancy blinked before she snorted...

...then she pulled some notes out from her belt pocket to slap them on Eleanor's head!

" _ **HEY!**_ " the latter yelped.

"The messages you missed from Cape Cod!" the transformed Cunard liner sternly declared.

Silence fell for a moment, then laughter echoed over the _Atlantis_ ' forecastle before yet another round of applause echoed over the scene. As Eleanor found herself blushing thanks to what Nancy had "done" for her over a century after she would have needed those messages, she felt Sarah's and Charlene's hands squeeze her shoulders as Gwenaëlle hugged her from behind. Simply speechless from the level of praise and admiration from all around her, the adopted native of Belfast and Halifax (where many of her lost crew and passengers found after she sank had been buried) then shuddered in delight.

 _I think I'm going to like this quite a lot..._

 _ **Fin...for Now!**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

Personally, I don't believe Professor **Robert Ballard** (born 1942) needs a real introduction.

The code **CQD** was the accepted (yet not official) distress signal in the early days of wireless communications; it was introduced in 1904 by the **Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company** (today called the **Marconi Company PLC** ), then the only major wireless telecommunications company active. The first two letters **CQ** (based on the French term _sécurité_ ["security"]) mark a general call over the wireless to this day. Since there was no land use for a specific distress call, the people at Marconi added the "D" to mark a distress call for ships. While some people interpret the code meaning "Come Quick, Danger", there is no official translation of the code just as the more well-known distress code **SOS** doesn't mean "Save Our Souls". CQD fell by the wayside after the sinking of RMS _Titanic_ in 1912; SOS (first devised in Germany in 1905) became the commonly accepted distress signal afterwards.

Translation list: **Ngóh dīk tīn** — My Heavens!; **Tāa māa dīk** — Literally "his mother's" but normally used as a profanity equivalent to "Shit!"; **Point** — A unit of nautical bearing equal to 11.25° (1/32 of a circle); **HMHS** — His/Her Majesty's Hospital Ship; **SM** — Literally **Seiner Majestät** , German for "His Majesty's", the ship prefix for submarines in the **Kaiserliche Marine** (Imperial Navy) from 1871-1918, which was shortened from **SMS** ( **Seiner Majestät Schiff** [His Majesty's Ship]).

The reason shipgirls in this omake are accorded the rank of commander (NATO rank code OF-4) is because of the fact that _Olympic_ 's and _Titanic_ 's shared captain, **Edward Smith** (1850-1912) — not to mention _Carpathia_ 's legendary captain **Arthur Rostron** (1869-1940) — were commanders in the **Royal Naval Reserve** ( **RNR** ), the volunteer reserve force of the United Kingdom's maritime warfare service. Because of this, any British merchant ship commanded or crewed by retired Royal Navy personnel or members of the RNR have the right to fly the plain **Blue Ensign** (with a warrant from the government). Ships whose crews do not meet the specifications noted above would fly the plain **Red Ensign** instead.

As an aside, the title of **Surgeon Commander** is given to a properly accredited medical officer who has achieved the rank of commander in the **Royal Navy Medical Service** ; all medical officers have the right to have the "surgeon" prefix title added to their rank title, from lieutenant all the way to vice admiral.

The appearance of **RMS** _ **Titanic**_ ( **Eleanor Smith** ) was based on **Eleanor Lamb** from _Bioshock 2_. Her uniform's colours were inspired by the costume worn by **Phoenix** ( **Jean Grey** ) in the _X-Men_ comics. In addition to the standard FISS powers and broadcast telepathy shared by all shipgirls, Eleanor possesses pyrokinetic abilities; this is due not only to the fact that _Titanic_ was sunk by an iceberg but also to the fire powers wielded by **Big Sisters** in _Bioshock 2_.

Her elder sister **RMS** _ **Olympic**_ ( **Sarah Smith** ) possesses electrokinetic abilities in reference to Zeus, king of the Greco-Roman Olympic pantheon. Her physical appearance is based on a portrait of a possible shipgirl version of _Olympic_ done on the DeviantArt website by the artist **Teebsy-86**.

As noted above, Sarah's and Eleanor's younger sister **HMHS** _ **Britannic**_ ( **Charlene Smith-Bartlett** ) would have the same type of empathic/telekinetic healing abilities similar to the **Healer** of the **Morlocks** who also appeared in _X-Men_ and _The New Mutants_.

Being a passenger/cargo tender, **SS** _ **Nomadic**_ ( **Gwenaëlle Laniece** ) actually possesses enhanced physical strength and endurance to the FOURTH power; in other words, she can dead-lift the tesseractic equivalent of her deadweight tonnage (approximately 1,427 tonnes), giving her a maximum dead-lift strength of 4,146,635,796,241 tonnes in Earth gravity. Her physical looks are also based on a portrait of a possible shipgirl version of _Nomadic_ done by Teebsy-86 that's on DeviantArt.

And as for the ship that was there for _Titanic_ 's survivors, **RMS** _ **Carpathia**_ ( **Nancy Rostron** ) possesses enhanced speed capabilities. This marks the fact that when _Titanic_ was sinking on the night of 15 April 1912, _Carpathia_ 's engineers forced the immigrant liner to go 17.5 knots (32.4 kilometres per hour) when she was normally capable of only 14 knots (26 kilometres per hour).

All radio call signs noted here were ones assigned to RMS _Olympic_ ( **MKC** ), RMS _Titanic_ ( **MGY** ) and RMS _Carpathia_ ( **MPA** ) by the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company. The call sign **MCC** was assigned to the Marconi station on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Of course, the call sign for **MV** _ **Atlantis**_ ( **KAQP** ) is what's listed in the article covering that ship on Wikipedia. The "call sign" set aside for the submersible _**Sea Cliff**_ is actually her hull designation, **DSV-4**.

In the universe of this story, an Olympic-class ship as a shipgirl can actually lift 148,035,889,000,000 tonnes (over a hundred and forty-eight TRILLION tonnes); all shipgirls can dead-lift the cube of their displacement as ships. However, Sarah Smith is used to the **long scale** of numerical measurement often used in Europe, which calls what would be seen as a billion in America and Canada simply as a **milliard** (10 to the ninth power), a trillion as a **billion** (10 to the twelfth power), a quadrillion as a **billiard** (10 to the fifteenth power) and so on.


End file.
